UC-NRLF 


SB    13    252 


LIBRARY 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA, 


RECEIVED    BY    EXCHANGE 


Class 


MEMORIAL  SERVICE 


IN  HONOR  OF 


WILLIAM   FREEMAN  VILAS 


AT  THE 


UNIVERSITY  OF  WISCONSIN 


MEMORIAL  SERVICE 


IN  HONOR  OF 


WILLIAM   FREEMAN  VILAS 


AT  THE 


UNIVERSITY  OF  WISCONSIN 

*  / 


ARMORY  HALL 

OCTOBER  THE  TWENTIETH 

NINETEEN    HUNDRED   AND   EIGHT 


61 


• 


WILLIAM    FREEMAN    VILAS 

Born    at     Chelsea,    Vermont,   July    9,     1840 
Died  at  Madison,  Wisconsin,  August  27,  1908 


A.  B.,  University  of  Wisconsin,  1858 ;  LL.  B.,  Albany 
Law  School,  1860;  A.  M.,  University  of  Wisconsin, 
1861 ;  LL.  D.,  University  of  Wisconsin,  1885. 

Admitted  to  the  Bar  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  New 
York  and  of  Wisconsin,  1860;  Captain  of  Company  A, 
Twenty-third  Kegiment  of  the  Wisconsin  Volunteer  In- 
fantry, August,  1862,  Major,  February,  1863,  Lieuten- 
ant Colonel,  March,  1863,  resigned,  August,  1863;  Pro- 
fessor of  Law  in  the  University  of  Wisconsin,  1868-1885 ; 
Reviser  of  the  Statutes  of  Wisconsin,  1875-1878 ;  Trus- 
tee of  the  Wisconsin  Soldiers'  Orphans'  Home,  1874- 
1893 ;  Regent  of  the  University  of  Wisconsin,  1881-1885 ; 
Permanent  Chairman  of  the  Democratic  National  Con- 
vention, 1884;  Member  of  the  Assembly  of  the  Legisla- 
ture of  Wisconsin,  1885;  Postmaster  General  of  the 
United  States,  1885-1888;  Secretary  of  the  Interior, 
1888-1889;  United  States  Senator,  1891-1897;  Member 
of  the  State  Historical  Library  Building  Commission, 
1896-1906 ;  Regent  of  the  University  of  Wisconsin,  1898- 
1905;  Vice-President  of  the  State  Historical  Society, 
1898-1908;  Member  of  the  Wisconsin  Capitol  Commis- 
sion, 1906-1908;  Author  of  "A  View  of  the  Vicksburg 
Campaign,"  published  by  the  Wisconsin  History  Com- 
mission, October,  1908. 


183204 


PROGRAM 


Invocation 

By  THE  KEVEREND  ADDISON  A.  EWING 

Vocal  Solo — Morning  Hymn — Henschel 
By  MRS.  MARIE  WHITE  LONGMAN 

Address  on  behalf  of  the  Regents 

By  PRESIDENT  WILLIAM  DEMPSTER  HOARD 

Address  on  behalf  of  the  Commonwealth 
By  CHIEF  JUSTICE  JOHN  BRADLEY  WINSLOW 

Vocal  Solo — Like  as  the  Hart — Allitsen 
By  MRS.  MARIE  WHITE  LONGMAN 

Address  on  behalf  of  the  College  of  Law 
By  PROFESSOR  BURR  W.  JONES 

Address  on  behalf  of  the  University 

By  PRESIDENT  CHARLES  RICHARD  VAN  HISE 

Benediction 


INVOCATION 

OUR  FATHER,  who  art  in  heaven,  Hallowed  be  thy 
Name.  Thy  kingdom  come.  Thy  will  be  done  on  earth, 
As  it  is  in  heaven.  Give  us  this  day  our  daily  bread. 
And  forgive  us  our  trespasses,  As  we  forgive  those  who 
trespass  against  us.  And  lead  us  not  into  temptation; 
But  deliver  us  from  evil ;  For  thine  is  the  kingdom,  and 
the  power,  and  the  glory  for  ever  and  ever.  Amen. 

O  ALMIGHTY  and  everliving  God,  the  source  of  all 
power  and  might,  in  knowledge  of  whom  standeth  our 
eternal  life,  whose  service  is  perfect  freedom,  we,  thine 
unworthy  servants,  do  laud  and  magnify  thy  holy  name. 
Thine,  O  Lord,  is  the  greatness  and  the  power  and  the 
glory  and  the  victory  and  the  majesty;  for  all  that  is  in 
the  heaven  and  in  the  earth  is  thine;  thine  is  the  king- 
dom, O  Lord,  and  thou  art  exalted  as  head  above  all. 
We  yield  unto  thee  most  high  praise  and  hearty  thanks 
for  the  wonderful  virtue  of  those  who  have  been  the 
lights  of  the  world  in  their  several  generations.  And 
especially  we  thank  thee  for  him  whose  life  and  services 
we  commemorate  this  day;  for  his  illustrious  example 
and  inspiring  force,  for  his  love  of  country  and  love  of 
learning.  Grant,  we  beseech  thee,  that  at  the  day  of 
judgment  his  soul  and  all  the  souls  of  thy  children  who 
have  feared  thee  and  loved  righteousness,  may  with  us 
and  we  with  them  fully  receive  thy  promises  and  be 
made  perfect  altogether;  through  the  glorious  resurrec- 
tion of  thy  Son,  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord.  Amen. 


[5] 


COLONEL  VILAS  AS  A  REGENT 

WILLIAM  D.  HOARD,  PRESIDENT  OF  THE  REGENTS 

The  pages  of  human  history  disclose  the  upward 
struggle  of  man  towards  a  more  perfect  ideal  of  indi- 
vidual and  community  life.  Slowly  but  surely  is  society 
crystalizing  in  the  direction  of  the  Golden  Rule;  more 
and  more  is  this  principle  accepted  among  men  as  the 
gauge  of  measurement  for  all  latter  day  civilization. 
That  utterance  of  the  great  Teacher,  "He  who  would 
lose  his  life  shall  save  it,"  epitomizes  this  great  univer- 
sity and  all  it  has  inspired  in  the  hearts  of  men.  Incon- 
sistent as  the  statement  may  appear  to  some,  the  great 
heart  of  humanity  has  but  little  respect  for  the  power  or 
wealth  that  men  may  heap  up  for  themselves;  but  for 
the  spirit  of  sacrifice  it  has  an  abiding  memory.  Sacri- 
fice is  the  essence  of  patriotism,  of  religion,  of  citizen- 
ship, of  parenthood,  of  education,  of  all  that  distin- 
guishes man  from  the  brute  creation.  It  is  the  inspir- 
ing voice  of  all  great  enterprises.  Public  sentiment  re- 
volts today,  as  it  never  did  before,  at  selfishness,  and 
honors,  as  it  never  did  before,  the  giving  of  life,  fortune 
and  great  effort  to  the  nourishment  of  the  souls  of  men. 
The  man  whose  memory  we  honor  today  has  done  great 
things  for  his  state.  Although  distinguished  as  a  law- 
yer, soldier,  publicist  and  legislator,  in  none  did  he  lay 
deeper  and  broader  foundations  for  public  esteem  than 
in  his  relations  with  this  university.  Through  it  all 
from  the  day  of  his  studentship  to  the  crowning  act  of 

[6] 


his  life,  every  effort  was  marked  by  the  spirit  of  glad 
sacrifice  in  its  behalf  and  for  its  honor. 

He  was  first  recording  secretary  of  the  University 
Alumni  association,  organized  June  26,  1861.  As  mem- 
ber of  the  assembly  in  1885-86,  it  Avas  through  his  influ- 
ence that  the  appropriation  was  made  for  the  construc- 
tion of  science  hall.  He  was  regent  from  1881  to  1885, 
and  from  1898  to  1905.  His  was  the  inspiring  mind  that 
led  to  the.  erection  of  the  state  historical  library.  It 
was  a  noble  conception,  one  that  has  not  yet  ceased  to 
grow  in  the  comprehension  and  appreciation  of  the  peo- 
ple of  the  state  and  nation. 

As  a  regent,  he  was  strong  and  masterful  in  his  grasp 
of  the  full  meaning  of  the  university  in  all  its  many- 
sided  aspects.  He  was  a  tower  of  strength  to  the  con- 
scientious teacher  and  investigator;  an  adviser  of  rare 
insight  to  the  student;  a  vigilant  guardian  of  its  finan- 
cial resources;  a  profound  believer  in  its  future  and  a 
staunch  supporter  of  its  logical  development  in  the  halls 
of  legislation.  As  I  contemplate  the  relation  that 
Colonel  Vilas  bore  to  the  university,  I  am  deeply  im- 
pressed with  the  retroactive  effect  which  grew  out  of 
that  relation.  Both  came  together  in  their  youth ;  both 
fostered  and  nourished  each  other;  both  became  great 
in  human  estimation  and  usefulness,  a  great  school  and 
a  great  man  welded  in  affectionate  regard  for  each  oth- 
er, to  the  final  glory  and  advancement  of  a  great  com- 
monwealth. There  is  much  in  this  contemplation  to  in- 
spire ambition,  patriotism  and  honorable  effort  on  the 
part  of  the  noble  youth  of  our  state. 


[7] 


COLONEL  VILAS  AND  THE  STATE 
CHIEF  JUSTICE  JOHN  B.  WINSLOW 

It  is  eminently  fitting  that  for  a  few  brief  hours  the 
work  of  the  classroom  and  study,  of  laboratory  and  shop 
in  this  great  university  should  be  suspended;  that  the 
busy  pen  should  be  dropped  and  the  text  book  remain 
unopened,  in  order  that  teacher  and  student  may  join  in 
paying  loving  tribute  to  the  memory  of  William  Free- 
man Vilas. 

The  University  of  Wisconsin  has  sent  forth  many 
great  sons,  but  it  has  sent  forth  none  who  more  com- 
pletely filled  the  measure  of  true  greatness  than  he 
whom  we  commemorate  today.  Great  in  learning,  great 
in  the  power  of  his  intellect,  great  in  his  grasp  of  affairs, 
great  in  his  life  work,  but  greatest  of  all  in  that  last 
act  by  which  he  dedicated  the  bountiful  fruits  of  a  busy 
and  successful  life  to  the  cause  of  learning  and  human 
advancement  for  all  time  to  come. 

Nearly  thirty-five  years  ago,  upon  a  memorable  occa- 
sion, Colonel  Vilas  paid  an  eloquent  and  affectionate 
tribute  to  a  great  chief  justice  of  Wisconsin  who  had 
just  passed  to  his  eternal  rest.  One  brief  sentence  from 
that  tribute  in  which  he  most  happily  expressed  his  esti- 
mate of  the  ability  of  the  distinguished  dead,  so  truly 
describes  the  speaker  himself  in  language  which  I  can 
not  hope  to  equal,  that  I  can  not  forbear  quoting  it  now 
and  applying  it  without  reserve  to  him  we  mourn.  He 
said :  "That  profound  and  abundant  wealth  of  learning, 
that  eloquent  tongue,  that  massive  brain,  which  like  an 

[8] 


exhaustless  mine  yielded  richer  stores,  the  deeper  it  was 
tried,  while  its  every  product  sparkled  with  the  gleam 
of  priceless  value,  are  gone  from  men,  lost  to  us  and  the 
state  forever.'7 

Ah !  that  is  the  worst  of  it.  Not  merely  that  we  who 
remain  have  lost  a  valued  friend,  but  that  the  univer- 
sity, the  community,  the  state,  and  the  nation  have  lost 
forever  the  powers  of  that  masterful  personality  and 
commanding  intellect  which  were  ever  ready  to  respond 
to  the  call  of  public  duty.  In  comparison  with  this  the 
private  loss,  great  though  it  may  be,  sinks  into  insignifi- 
cance. We  may  all  make  new  and  perhaps  dearer 
friends,  but  we  shall  not  readily  find  men  endowed  with 
talents  like  his  who  are  ready  and  willing  to  devote  them 
to  the  public  service. 

Colonel  Vilas  served  his  country  in  many  capacities ; 
as  a  soldier  on  midnight  march  and  bloodstained  field, 
as  a  counsellor  in  the  national  cabinet  and  in  legislative 
halls,  and  as  an  executive  officer  on  administrative 
boards  of  various  kinds,  both  state  and  national,  he 
freely  gave  his  splendid  abilities  to  the  service  of  the 
people  with  single-hearted  and  patriotic  devotion.  It  is 
of  these  public  services  that  I  would  briefly  speak. 

He  came  to  manhood  at  a  momentous  time  in  the  na- 
tion's history.  The  very  air  was  charged  with  political 
excitement.  The  great  conflict  between  freedom  and 
slavery  was  swiftly  approaching,  though  none  knew 
when  the  clash  of  arms  would  come;  the  hosts  were  be- 
ing marshalled,  and  the  tramp  of  the  opposing  legions, 
which  were  to  fight  out  the  question  of  human  bondage, 
could  almost  be  heard  upon  the  distant  hills.  Young 
Vilas  had  taken  his  degree  of  A.  B.  from  this  university 

[9] 


in  1858  at  the  age  of  eighteen,  and  had  finished  his 
study  of  law  at  the  Albany  Law  School  in  1860.  He  im- 
mediately commenced  the  practice  in  Madison.  Force- 
ful, able  and  industrious,  he  chained  success  to  his  wheel 
from  the  very  start.  He  had  chosen  the  law,  not  for  the 
mere  purpose  of  gaining  a  livelihood,  but  because  he 
loved  it;  and  to  such  the  law  gives  her  richest  rewards. 
The  storm  of  war  broke  within  a  year,  but  still  he  stayed 
at  his  desk,  for  the  law  was  mistress  of  his  heart.  But 
he  was  young  and  strong ;  in  his  veins  flowed  no  pale  and 
anemic  stream,  but  a  full  tide  of  generous  and  virile 
blood.  A  year  of  war  passed,  and  as  the  contest  became 
more  bloody  and  doubtful,  and  loyal  spirits  drooped,  he 
yielded  to  the  patriotic  promptings  of  his  heart>  and  in 
August,  1862,  closed  his  office  door,  raised  a  company, 
and  went  forth  as  captain  of  Company  A  of  the  twenty- 
third  regiment.  That  he  made  a  good  soldier  goes  with- 
out saying,  he  could  not  do  otherwise ;  halfway  work  was 
foreign  to  his  nature.  His  regiment  was  assigned  to  the 
Army  of  the  West,  whose  objective  point  soon  became 
the  reduction  of  Vicksburg.  In  February,  1863,  he  was 
promoted  to  the  office  of  major,  and  in  March  he  became 
lieutenant  colonel.  Grant's  Vicksburg  campaign  was 
then  on,  and  during  it  all,  and  for  some  months  after  the 
fall  of  the  city,  he  was  in  command  of  his  regiment.  In 
this  marvelous  campaign,  whose  result  practically  deter- 
mined the  final  result  of  the  war,  he  took  an  active  and 
by  no  means  unimportant  part.  More  than  forty  years 
later  I  had  the  good  fortune  to  hear  him  relate  in 
graphic  detail  the  story  of  this  great  campaign,  which 
probably  eclipsed  in  boldness  and  strategy  any  cam- 
paign of  the  Civil  War.  It  was  a  story  of  daring  gen- 
eralship on  the  part  of  the  great  leader,  and  heroic  devo- 

[10] 


tion  on  the  part  of  the  rank  and  file,  which  held  its  hear- 
ers spellbound. 

In  the  fall  of  1863  duty  called  him  homeward,  and  he 
resigned  his  commission  and  returned  to  Madison.  Here 
he  resumed  the  practice,  and  for  more  than  twenty  years 
he  bent  his  energies  unremittingly  to  his  profession,  con- 
quering a  place  at  the  very  forefront  among  the  greatest 
lawyers  of  the  state.  During  this  time  he  took  his  part 
as  a  citizen  in  political  affairs,  but  did  not  allow  himself 
to  be  diverted  from  his  great  purpose.  The  great  na- 
tional contest  in  1884,  however,  appealed  strongly  to 
him,  and  he  took  an  active  part  in  the  campaign.  Short- 
ly before  this  he  had  attracted  national  attention  to  him- 
self by  his  eloquent  speech  of  welcome  to  his  old  and  be- 
loved leader,  General  Grant,  upon  the  latter's  return 
from  his  trip  around  the  world.  He  was  chosen  chair- 
man of  the  great  convention  which  nominated  Grover 
Cleveland  for  the  presidency,  and  performed  his  duties 
with  marked  ability.  Later  he  acted  as  chairman  of  the 
committee  of  notification,  and  on  this  occasion  first  met 
Mr.  Cleveland.  So  impressed  was  Mr.  Cleveland  by  the 
apparent  strength  of  the  man  on  this  occasion,  that  he 
said  to  an  intimate  friend  at  the  close  of  the  exercises, 
"If  I  am  elected  I  am  going  to  have  that  man  in  my  cabi- 
net." The  campaign  went  on,  Mr.  Cleveland  was  elect- 
ed, and  when  he  announced  his  cabinet  March  5, 1885,  he 
named  Colonel  Vilas  as  postmaster  general.  Colonel 
Vilas  was  then  a  member  of  the  assembly  of  the  state 
from  the  city  of  Madison,  and  was  doing  yeoman  service 
for  the  state  and  the  university  in  that  body.  The  appoint- 
ment came  to  him  unsought;  he  had  made  no  effort  for 
preferment;  he  had  pulled  no  wires  and  made  no  com- 
binations ;  the  devious  ways  of  the  mere  politician  were 

[ill 


distasteful  to  him ;  he  wanted  no  office  which  his  merits 
did  not  command ;  and  thus,  solely  by  reason  of  his  abil- 
ity and  fitness,  at  the  age  of  forty-five,  he  was  called  to  a 
place  at  the  council  board  of  one  of  our  greatest  presi- 
dents. He  immediately  resigned  his  position  in  the  as- 
sembly, went  to  Washington,  and  entered  upon  four 
years  of  arduous  and  exacting  toil,  a  toil  which  demand- 
ed the  use  of  all  his  strength,  both  physical  and  mental, 
and  which  left  its  heavy  mark  upon  him  ever  afterward. 

It  is  but  the  simple  truth  to  say  that  Colonel  Vilas 
became  one  of  President  Cleveland's  closest  friends  and 
advisers,  if  not  indeed  the  very  closest.  While  markedly 
different  in  many  ways,  they  absolutely  agreed  in  view- 
ing public  office  as  a  sacred  trust  from  the  people,  whose 
duties  were  to  be  performed  with  a  single  eye  to  the  pub- 
lic good.  There  were  great  questions  before  that  coun- 
cil board,  and  there  were  great  men  there  to  meet  them, 
but  among  all  the  president's  advisers  there  were  none 
endowed  with  higher  abilities  or  greater  grasp  of  mind 
than  Colonel  Vilas.  Perhaps  no  man  in  that  cabinet  can 
be  said  to  have  had  a  dominating  influence,  for  the  presi- 
dent himself  was  ever  dominant,  but  certain  it  is  that  no 
question  was  there  debated  which  was  not  illuminated 
by  his  clear,  logical,  and  eloquent  discussion  of  it,  and 
upon  very  many  questions  his  opinion  was  accepted  as 
decisive. 

But  he  had  other  and  more  onerous  duties  than  those 
of  an  adviser,  important  as  those  might  be.  He  was 
placed  at  the  head  of  the  post  office  department,  which 
is,  in  fact,  an  enormous  business  enterprise  carried  on  by 
the  government.  The  choice  was  happily  made.  Besides 
being  a  great  lawyer  in  the  truest  sense,  Colonel  Vilas 
was  a  great  business  man.  He  was  naturally  endowed 

[12] 


with  a  remarkable  business  ability,  a  capacity  to  grasp 
and  understand  great  transactions,  to  correlate  com- 
plicated details,  to  decide  quickly  and  wisely  questions 
involving  many  and  conflicting  details,  to  systematize 
the  work  and  utilize  to  the  utmost  the  services  of  sub- 
ordinates. 

In  the  post  office  department  he  found  abundant  op- 
portunity for  the  use  of  all  his  business  ability.  As  a 
matter  of  fact  the  business  of  the  department  had  grown 
to  amazing  proportions,  with  no  corresponding  growth 
or  improvement  in  business  management.  The  methods 
were  many  of  them  antiquated  and  extravagant,  the  or- 
ganization inefficient,  and  the  results  entirely  dispro- 
portionate to  the  energy  and  labor  expended.  The  task 
of  systematizing,  and  placing  on  a  scientific  business 
basis,  the  work  of  the  department  was  well  calculated 
to  dismay  any  man  under  ordinary  conditions,  but  espe- 
cially so  when  there  had  just  been  a  change  in  the  poli- 
tical control  of  the  country  for  the  first  time  in  twenty- 
four  years,  and  victorious  partisans  were  clamoring  on 
every  hand  for  distribution  of  the  spoils  of  victory. 
Colonel  Vilas  undertook  this  great  task  with  that  reso- 
lute determination  and  tireless  industry  which  marked 
his  whole  life.  Day  after  day,  and  week  after  week,  he 
was  at  his  desk  consuming  not  only  the  ordinary  busi- 
ness hours,  but  stealing  from  slumber  the  long  and 
weary  hours  of  the  night.  Two  years  of  this  exacting 
labor  found  the  department  re-organized  on  a  scientific 
basis,  system  in  place  of  confusion,  and  business  meth- 
ods in  place  of  disjointed  effort, 

Nor  was  this  all.  When  Secretary  Lamar  was  ap- 
pointed to  the  supreme  bench,  Colonel  Vilas  was  placed 
at  the  head  of  the  interior  department,  and  here  a  task 

[13] 


of  the  same  nature  but  of  greater  intricacy  and  volume 
awaited  him.  The  interior  department  covers  greater 
and  more  diverse  interests  than  any  other  of  the  depart- 
ments of  the  government.  The  pension  office,  with  its 
immense  payroll,  the  patent  office,  the  public  land  office, 
the  Indian  bureau,  and  many  lesser  governmental  agen- 
cies which  have  found  lodgment  nowhere  else,  are  in- 
cluded under  the  supervision  of  the  secretary  of  the  in- 
terior. Secretary  Lamar  was  a  great  and  lovable  man, 
but  not  endowed  with  the  highest  administrative  ability. 
Here,  too,  Colonel  Vilas  found  methods  antiquated,  la- 
bor illy  organized  and  misdirected,  results  unsatisfac- 
tory and  business  far  behind.  It  is  not  possible  to  go 
into  details,  but  it  is  sufficient  to  say  that  with  infinite 
labor  he  brought  up  the  arrears,  greatly  expedited  busi- 
ness, established  system,  and  brought  order  out  of  con- 
fusion. He  had  also  prepared  a  scheme  for  the  complete 
legislative  re-organization  of  the  department,  but  on  ac- 
count of  the  unexpected  defeat  of  President  Cleveland 
in  1888  he  necessarily  went  out  of  office  and  the  subject 
was  dropped. 

Not  only  had  his  cabinet  labors  made  inroads  on  his 
health  and  strength,  but  it  is  also  a  fact,  not  indeed  gen- 
erally known,  that  the  necessary  expenses  of  his  posi- 
tion, and  his  enforced  neglect  of  his  own  business  affairs 
for  four  years,  had  seriously  reduced  his  private  re- 
sources. Returning  to  Madison,  he  again  resumed  the 
practice  and  turned  his  energies  to  the  rebuilding  of  his 
impaired  fortune. 

He  enjoyed  but  a  brief  respite,  however,  from  the 
cares  and  duties  of  public  office.  The  political  revolu- 
tion which  occurred  in  Wisconsin  in  1890,  resulted  in 
his  election  as  senator  in  January,  1891,  and  sent  him 

[14] 


back  to  Washington  to  represent  his  state  in  the  higher 
house  of  the  federal  congress.  His  labors  in  the  senate 
are  comparatively  recent,  and  hardly  need  to  be  recount- 
ed. In  the  unfortunate  contest  which  arose  between 
President  Cleveland  and  the  democratic  leaders  over  the 
silver  question,  he  stood  loyally  by  the  president  and 
thus  in  a  measure  alienated  many  of  his  former  party 
friends.  This  was  pain  and  grief  to  him  but  it  moved 
him  not.  He  went  steadily  on  in  the  path  he  had  mark- 
ed out ;  he  was  no  time  server,  he  knew  no  course  but  to 
follow  his  convictions,  whatever  the  result  might  be. 
His  senatorial  career  was  marked  by  the  same  industry, 
the  same  fidelity  to  principle,  the  same  earnest  desire  to 
do  his  whole  duty  and  utilize  all  his  ability  for  the  pro- 
motion of  the  public  welfare,  which  were  the  keynotes 
of  his  work  as  a  cabinet  officer.  Though  at  serious  vari- 
ance with  the  majority  of  his  party  when  his  term  closed, 
he  lived,  as  President  Cleveland  did,  to  receive  the  gen- 
erous plaudits  of  all  parties  whether  composed  of  poli- 
tical friends  or  foes.  Perhaps  he  had  higher  ambitions, 
indeed  I  am  quite  sure  that  he  had  them,  but  the  prac- 
tical shipwreck  of  his  party  on  the  silver  question  ren- 
dered their  fulfillment  impossible;  and  in  1897  he  re- 
tired to  his  beautiful  home  hoping  to  enjoy  a  period  of 
dignified  and  well  earned  release  from  public  sendee. 

Upon  this  second  retirement  from  high  office  he  did 
not  again  resume  the  general  practice,  but  devoted  his 
talents  to  the  upbuilding  of  his  extensive  and  varied  bus- 
iness interests.  For  this  effort  the  times  were  ripe ;  val- 
ues of  all  kinds  were  advancing  with  rapidity,  and  dur- 
ing the  ensuing  years  prior  to  his  death,  by  his  untiring 
industry  and  business  sagacity,  he  accumulated  the 
greater  part  of  that  fortune  which  he  finally  devoted  to 

[15] 


the  advancement  of  education  and  the  good  of  his  fellow- 
man. 

Again,  however,  his  state  called  upon  him  to  serve 
her,  first  as  regent  of  the  university,  and  later  as  a  mem- 
ber of  the  commission  for  building  the  new  capitol. 

It  is  not  within  my  province  to  speak  of  his  labors 
as  regent,  and  all  are  familiar  with  his  great  work  upon 
the  capitol  commission.  In  this  work  he  rejoiced,  and 
he  brought  to  it  all  his  executive  and  business  ability, 
supplemented  by  his  valuable  experience  in  Washington 
in  the  formulation  of  the  plans  for  the  congressional 
library  building.  It  was  his  fond  hope  to  see  the  new 
capitol  completed,  and  this  hope  he  expressed  to  me  but 
a  few  days  before  his  last  illness  began.  At  that  time  it 
seemed  not  unlikely  that  his  hope  would  be  fulfilled. 
His  eye  was  bright,  his  step  firm,  his  voice  clear,  and 
much  of  his  old  time  enthusiasm  showed  in  his  counten- 
ance. But  this  wish  was  denied  him.  A  lifetime  of  ar- 
duous labor  had  seriously  undermined  a  naturally 
strong  constitution.  Though  he  was  not  old  in  years, 
yet  in  point  of  labor  and  achievement  he  had  lived  a 
longer  life  than  many  who  reach  the  age  of  four  score. 
Suddenly,  and  without  warning,  the  active  brain  was 
stilled,  the  busy  hand  lay  motionless,  and  the  scholar, 
the  statesman,  the  ever  loyal  son  of  the  university  laid 
aside  all  his  tasks  at  his  Maker's  bidding,  and  passed  to 
that  unknown  country,  "where  beyond  these  voices  there 
is  peace.'7 


[16] 


COLONEL  VILAS  AND  THE  LAW  SCHOOL 
PROFESSOR  BURR  W.  JONES 

At  the  opening  of  the  college  year  in  1868  there  were 
nine  members  of  the  regular  senior  class  and  less  than 
seventy  in  the  college  classes  of  the  state  university. 

Most  of  the  manifold  courses  and  departments  of 
study  which  now  open  their  doors  to  thousands  of  young 
men  and  women,  had  then  existed  only  in  the  imagina- 
tion of  the  wise  and  farseeing  men  who  had  conceived 
and  helped  to  develop  the  ambitious  plans  on  which  this 
university  was  founded. 

Whatever  may  have  been  the  dreams  of  those  men  up 
to  that  time,  the  university  had  been  for  the  most  part 
one  of  the  old  time  colleges  of  that  day,  a  training  school 
for  lawyers,  doctors  and  ministers. 

There  was,  indeed,  a  so-called  scientific  course,  look- 
ed on  by  many  as  a  dangerous  innovation  upon  the  ortho- 
dox traditions  of  college  life. 

When  President  Paul  A.  Chadbourne  came  to  this 
university,  he  was  resolute  in  the  view  that  there  must 
be  a  department  of  law.  When  the  first  announcement 
was  made  there  seemed  almost  insuperable  difficulties; 
there  was  no  building,  not  even  a  vacant  room  in  which 
to  house  the  hoped-for  law-school;  there  was  no  money 
with  which  to  pay  the  professors.  But  President  Chad- 
bourne  looked  about  to  find  men  who  could  form  his 
faculty.  To  call  law  professors  from  Harvard  or  Yale 
was  not  to  be  thought  of ;  that  would  require  money.  At 
that  time  William  F.  Vilas  was  a  young  lawyer  in  this 
city;  he  had  attended  for  two  years  the  Albany  Law 

[17] 


School,  and  I  believe  was  the  only  man  in  this  city  who 
had  had  the  training  of  a  law  school.  In  those  days  law 
schools  were  regarded  by  many  of  the  profession  as  the 
nursing  place  of  mere  theorists  and  visionaries,  and  I 
doubt  if  there  were  then  a  dozen  graduates  of  law  schools 
in  the  state  of  Wisconsin.  Mr.  Vilas  was  then  only 
twenty-eight  years  of  age,  but  he  was  already  one  of  the 
best  known  and  attractive  figures  of  the  Wisconsin  bar, 
and,  in  the  popular  estimation,  he  was  able  to  cope  with 
any  antagonist.  He  had  graduated  from  college  at  the 
age  of  eighteen;  had  commenced  practice  at  twenty; 
served  under  Grant  and  Sherman  in  the  great  campaign 
in  which  Vicksburg  surrendered,  and  in  which  the  back- 
bone of  the  rebellion  was  broken.  Young,  virile,  hand- 
some, he  was  the  people's  lawyer  in  the  community  in 
which  he  lived.  He  was  trying  their  cases  against 
the  corporations,  and  had  for  the  masses  of  men  that 
peculiar  charm  which  they  always  find  in  the  brilliant 
advocate  who  can  ably  espouse  their  cause,  and  who 
fears  no  antagonist. 

President  Chadbourne  chose  as  the  dean  of  the  new 
law  school  Judge  J.  H.  Carpenter,  then  in  the  prime  of 
life,  a  trained  and  thorough  lawyer  of  the  true  judicial 
temperament,  who  still  lives  among  us,  honored  in  his 
retirement. 

He  and  Colonel  Vilas  were  selected  as  the  real  fa- 
culty of  the  projected  law  school.  It  is  true  that  the 
names  of  the  three  judges  of  the  supreme  court  were 
placed  upon  the  catalogue,  but  so  far  as  I  am  informed 
the  influence  of  their  names  was  all  that  was  ever  ex- 
pected. 

In  the  year  1868  this  announcement  was  made  by  the 
board  of  regents : 

US] 


"ill.      PROFESSIONAL  AND  OTHER  COLLEGES. 

The  Law  Department. 

This  important  department  has  been  organized  since 
the  last  annual  report  of  the  Kegents  and  will  probably 
soon  present  one  of  the  most  attractive  and  successful 
branches  of  the  University.  J.  H.  Carpenter,  Esq.,  has 
been  appointed  Dean  of  the  Faculty,  and  Wm.  F.  Vilas, 
LL.  B.,  another  of  its  professors,  while  the  Judges  of  the 
Supreme  Court  have  kindly  consented  to  accept  pro- 
fessorships in  this  department  and  to  lecture  therein 
gratuitously  when  their  other  duties  will  permit," 

The  law  schools  of  those  days  were  hospitable  and 
they  welcomed  their  students  with  open  arms.  In  our 
university  the  requisites  for  entry  were  very  simple,  and 
in  these  words : 

"Students  will  be  admitted  at  any  time;  but  those 
who  are  not  Collegiate  graduates  must  be  20  years  of 
age  to  enter  this  department. 

"No  examination  for  admission  is  required. 

"Credentials  of  good  moral  character  must  be  fur- 
nished." 

A  little  later  Judge  Harlow  S.  Orton  became  dean  of 
the  law  faculty.  His  report  to  the  board  of  regents  for 
the  year  1870  shows  the  situation,  and  his  sanguine 
hopes.  He  said  the  law  department  entered  upon  its 
present  and  third  year  under  circumstances  of  great 
prosperity  and  promise  with  a  class  of  fourteen  stu- 
dents. "The  class  is  composed  of  young  men  of  most 
excellent  abilities,  qualifications  and  character  for  the 
bar,  and  they  are  most  attentive  and  diligent  students." 
He  added,  "the  department  is  already  deemed  a  great 
success." 

In  the  report  for  1871  he  again  commended  the  ex- 
cellent abilities  and  attainments  of  the  class,  and  re- 

[19] 


ported  that  they  were  all  of  good  habits  and  high  moral 
character;  that  Governor  Fairchild  had  kindly  furnish- 
ed a  classroom  in  the  capital,  but  it  was  recommended 
that  during  the  legislative  session  a  room  somewhere  in 
some  block  around  the  park  should  be  furnished  for  the 
purpose.  He  reported  that  the  students  were  poor,  and 
said  "to  those  who  for  the  time  are  unable  to  pay  for 
their  tuition,  the  full  benefits  of  the  course  have  been 
liberally  extended,  trusting  them  to  pay  when  able  to  do 
so,"  and  that  none  who  could  pay  for  their  board  and 
support  had  been  turned  away. 

These  incidents  illustrate  the  humble  beginning  of 
the  law  school  in  which  for  many  years  Mr.  Vilas  work- 
ed with  inspiring  enthusiasm.  Crowded  as  he  was  writh 
his  professional  engagements,  there  was,  of  course,  no 
inducement  to  such  service  in  the  hope  of  mere  financial 
reward,  but  the  appeal  came  to  him  as  one  of  loyalty  to 
his  alma  mater ;  there  were  memories  of  his  old  comrades 
and  his  instructors  of  university  days.  In  that  little 
group  of  half  a  dozen  professors  there  had  been  Lathrop, 
Butler,  Sterling  and  Read,  men  who  would  have  hon- 
ored any  university,  young  or  old,  and  of  every  one  of 
them  to  the  last  hours  of  his  life,  he  always  spoke  with 
love  and  gratitude. 

Of  course  such  a  man  appealed  to  the  young  law  stu- 
dents who  came  under  his  magnetic  spell.  He  was  their 
embodiment  of  what  a  lawyer  should  be. 

In  those  days  the  law  course  was  completed  in  a 
single  year. 

It  was  his  custom  to  give  two  hours  each  week  to  the 
duties  of  the  law  school.  Often  those  two  hours  would 
be  extended  to  three  or  four  as  he  became  interested  in 
his  subject.  One  of  his  subjects  was  that  of  common 

[20] 


law  pleading.  The  old  common  law  lawyers  had  built 
up  a  system  of  procedure  full  of  mystery  and  technicali- 
ties, but  Colonel  Vilas  was  able  to  show  us  the  outlines 
of  the  incongruous  structure  and  the  foundation  on 
which  it  rested. 

In  dealing  with  the  code  of  procedure  and  the  rules 
of  evidence,  his  instruction  was  filled  with  illustrations 
from  his  own  varied  and  extensive  practice,  and  his 
students  had  thus  deeply  fixed  in  their  minds  the  prin- 
ciples of  law  he  expounded.  He  gave  us  not  only  the 
principles,  but  their  mode  of  application  as  they  arose 
in  the  comedies  and  tragedies  of  human  life. 

In  his  work  in  the  classroom  he  adhered  to  no  rigid 
mode  of  instruction.  He  required  the  reading  of  text 
books  and  decisions,  he  tested  our  work  with  questions, 
he  confused  us  by  no  deluge  of  decisions,  but  insisted 
that  we  should  know  the  fundamental  rules.  He  excited 
our  admiration  for  the  great  judges  and  lawyers  who 
had  reared  the  structure  of  the  common  law.  We  could 
not  but  feel  his  scorn  and  contempt  for  the  tricksters 
and  shysters  who  sometimes  wore  the  livery  of  a  great 
profession  in  which  to  serve  their  own  avarice.  He 
found  time  for  anecdote,  classic  and  historic  allusions, 
and  now  and  then,  as  we  sat  around  the  table,  his  own 
eloquence  would  stir  our  blood.  He  had  the  true  con- 
ception of  the  office  of  the  great  teacher. 

As  we  all  know,  the  facts  and  formulas  of  the  class- 
room are  easily  forgotten.  But  the  impress  which  a 
strong  and  learned  man,  filled  with  enthusiasm  for  his 
work,  can  make  upon  eager  and  ambitious  young  men  is 
as  lasting  as  life  itself.  Here  was  the  great  service  of 
Colonel  Vilas  to  our  law  school,  and  indeed  to  the  whole 

[21] 


student  body,  because  such  an  influence  far  overflows 
the  classroom. 

The  hopes,  the  ambitions,  the  ideals,  which  are  being 
formed  in  the  minds  of  the  thousands  of  young  men  in 
this  university  to-day,  will  endure  long  after  the  prob- 
lems of  examination  papers  over  which  they  now  toil  are 
forgotten.  Much  of  this  they  can  afford  to  forget.  But 
the  habits  and  the  ideals  here  inspired  are  vital. 
Whether  right  or  wrong,  they  will  last  through  life  and 
will  light  the  way  to  success  or  failure,  happiness  or 
woe.  Colonel  Vilas  had  the  way  of  letting  us  know  that 
he  expected  our  success,  and  would  be  personally  hurt 
and  disappointed  by  our  failure.  Years  afterward  as 
this  or  that  promotion  came  to  a  graduate  he  would  say 
with  a  delight  not  to  be  mistaken,  "he  is  one  of  our 
boys." 

Of  course  this  feeling  was  reciprocated.  When  he 
won  his  triumphs  in  the  forum  or  on  the  platform,  he 
found  in  his  former  students  a  band  of  admirers.  When 
he  won  national  fame  as  an  orator  in  that  memorable 
address  of  welcome  to  his  old  commander,  General 
Grant,  his  boys  were  pleased,  but  not  surprised. 

When  he  stood  among  the  first  of  his  party  in  na- 
tional conventions,  when  he  was  called  to  the  cabinet  of 
President  Cleveland,  and  when  later  he  was  a  leader  in 
the  senate  of  the  United  States  those  who  had  loved  and 
admired  him  in  the  law  school  still  delighted  in  his  suc- 
cess. Of  course  when  he  took  up  the  responsibilities  of 
public  life  the  law  school  could  no  longer  claim  his 
service. 

Nearly  seventeen  years  before  he  and  Judge  Carpen- 
ter had  undertaken  the  responsibility  of  establishing  a 
law  school ;  they  had  commenced  without  a  building  or  a 

[22] 


room,  without  the  certainty  of  a  student,  or  the  promise 
of  a  dollar  of  reward.  When  he  left  in  1885  to  become 
a  cabinet  minister,  the  law  school  was  no  longer  a  step- 
child of  the  state.  The  college  of  law  had  sent  forth 
hundreds  of  alumni,  who  in  many  a  time  of  stress  had 
fought  the  battles  of  the  university,  and  many  of  whom 
had  become  leaders  in  the  courts,  on  the  bench  and  in 
the  councils  of  the  state.  If  any  department  in  this  in- 
stitution of  learning  can  have  a  founder  he  was  one  of 
the  founders  of  the  college  of  law.  His  fidelity  to  the 
law  school  was  only  one  instance  of  his  love  for  the  uni- 
versity with  which,  except  for  a  few  short  interruptions, 
he  was  identified  from  boyhood  until  death. 

In  this  university  he  formed  with  his  fellows  the 
friendships  of  college  days.  Here  four  of  his  brothers 
had  their  college  years.  Here  he  commenced  his  in- 
timacy with  the  great  and  good  writers  of  the  past,  ail 
intimacy  which  he  cherished  with  increasing  delight 
with  the  passing  years. 

Over  this  institution  as  a  regent,  he  watched  with 
tender  care  for  many  years.  It  is  not  strange  that  he 
had  learned  to  love  this  university  which  for  so  many 
years,  in  so  many  ways,  he  had  helped  to  upbuild.  To 
those  who  had  long  known  his  thoughts  it  was  no  sur- 
prise that  his  last  will  made  that  love  immortal.  The 
college  of  law  and  its  alumni,  and  all  the  army  of  alumni 
of  this  university,  recognize  their  debt  of  gratitude  to 
the  best  friend  and  the  greatest  benefactor  this  univer- 
sity has  ever  known. 

It  is  by  the  work  and  sacrifices  of  such  men  as  he 
that  great  universities  are  made.  Massive  buildings  and 
great  laboratories  have  their  place  and  do  their  work, 
but  after  all  the  chief  glory  of  a  university  is  that  she 

[23] 


has  produced  great  men.  No  university  has  reached  its 
goal  until  its  alumni  are  willing  to  attest  their  love  by 
toil  and  sacrifice.  We  are  honoring  a  man  to-day  be- 
cause, during  all  his  remarkable  career  and  during  all 
his  busy  life,  he  found  time  to  befriend  and  work  for  his 
university.  It  will  be  enriched  by  a  fortune  which  repre- 
sents untold  energy  and  toil. 

It  is  enriched  still  more  by  the  object  lesson  of  such  a 
life.  It  is  part  of  that  lesson  that  men  who  acquire 
great  wealth,  hold  it,  in  a  moral  sense,  incumbered  with 
a  trust. 

It  was  his  view,  often  expressed,  that  the  holders  of 
great  fortunes  owe  a  corresponding  duty  to  the  state. 

He  felt  it  almost  a  crime  that  such  men,  acquiring 
their  fortunes  under  favorable  laws  and  opportunities, 
should  recognize  no  debt  of  gratitude  to  the  state.  It 
would  be  well  if  more  of  the  rich  men  of  America  recog- 
nized their  trust.  And  if  they  more  keenly  appreciated 
the  thought,  that 

"All  you  can  hold  in  your  cold  dead  hand 
Is  what  you  have  given  away." 

He  certainly  gave  his  toil  and  his  fortune  with  gen- 
erous hand;  and  generations  hence,  when  the  names  of 
many  a  politician  and  statesman  now  on  every  tongue, 
will  be  well-nigh  forgotten,  his  name  will  be  revered  and 
his  memory  will  be  sacred. 


[24] 


COLONEL  VILAS  AND  THE  UNIVERSITY 

PRESIDENT  CHARLES  RICHARD  VAN  HISE 

William  Freeman  Vilas  entered  the  preparatory  de- 
partment of  the  university  in  the  autumn  of  1852,  the 
collegiate  department  in  1854,  and  received  the  degree 
of  bachelor  of  arts  in  1858.  After  obtaining  his  first  de- 
gree he  did  further  work  in  the  university,  and  was 
made  master  of  arts  in  1861.  As  already  indicated,  by 
a  previous  speaker,  after  returning  from  the  Albany 
Law  School,  he  and  Professor  Carpenter,  in  1868,  were 
instrumental  in  founding  the  school  of  law  of  the  uni- 
versity, now  the  college  of  law.  Colonel  Vilas  was  a 
professor  in  this  school  from  1868  to  1885,  seventeen 
years.  When  he  retired  from  this  professorship  to  ac- 
cept the  position  of  postmaster  general  of  the  United 
States,  his  great  service  to  the  law  school  was  recog- 
nized by  the  degree  of  doctor  of  laws. 

Colonel  Vilas's  services  to  the  United  States  as  post- 
master general,  secretary  of  the  interior,  and  United 
States  senator,  continued  until  1897.  At  the  end  of  his 
term  in  the  senate  he  immediately  reentered  the  law 
school  where  he  remained  as  lecturer  until  1899. 

Colonel  Vilas  was  a  regent  of  the  university,  as  well 
as  professor  of  law,  from  1881  to  1885,  four  years,  and 
again  was  regent  from  1898  to  1905,  seven  years.  His 
retirement  from  the  regency  in  1905  was  due  to  ill 
health,  but  it  did  not  lesson  his  interest  in  the  univer- 

[25] 


sity.  It  still  remained  my  privilege  to  consult  him  upon 
important  matters  of  university  policy,  and  he  con- 
tinued to  give  public  support  to  the  advancement  of  its 
interests. 

While  a  professor  of  law  and  a  regent  in  1885,  he  was 
also  a  member  of  the  assembly,  and  it  was  through  his 
persuasive  and  powerful  advocacy  that  the  legislature 
first  recognized  in  a  large  way  the  influence  of  the  uni- 
versity in  the  upbuilding  of  the  state.  Appropriations 
were  made  which  authorized  the  construction  of  the 
present  science  building,  the  machine  shops,  and  the  old 
chemical  laboratory.  Colonel  Vilas's  speech  upon  the 
university  bill  in  the  assembly,  has  been  properly  re- 
garded as  one  of  the  great  pleas  for  the  support  of  high- 
er education  in  this  state. 

During  the  last  period  of  Colonel  Vilas's  services  to 
the  university  as  a  regent,  I  had  an  opportunity  to  be- 
come intimately  acquainted  with  his  characteristics. 
One  of  the  traits  that  early  impressed  me  was  his  com- 
prehensive grasp  of  the  financial  affairs  of  the  univer- 
sity. His  memory  was  almost  infallible,  not  only  with 
reference  to  the  existing  financial  condition,  but  con- 
cerning actions  which  had  been  taken  by  the  board.  In- 
deed his  grip  upon  financial  details  was  such  that  the 
regents  came  to  rely  upon  him  to  an  extraordinary  de- 
gree. Probably  we  may  expect  that  only  rarely  shall  we 
have  a  regent  who  in  this  particular  will  be  the  equal  of 
Colonel  Vilas. 

But  perhaps  Colonel  Vilas's  most  important  char- 
acteristic as  a  regent  was  his  quick  grasp  of  any  large 
plan  for  the  development  of  the  university.  If  an  idea 
appealed  to  his  judgment  it  at  once  had  his  powerful 
support.  It  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  during  the  time 

[26] 


Colonel  Vilas  was  regent  he  was  a  potent  influence  in 
each  of  the  important  advances  made  by  the  university. 
When  he  saw  a  thing  should  be  done  his  quickness  of  ac- 
tion was  remarkable.  Thus,  when  it  was  pointed  out 
that  the  most  advantageous  site  for  the  new  central 
heating  plant  was  south  of  University  avenue,  off  the 
campus  proper  and  adjacent  to  a  railroad,  he  instantly 
accepted  the  suggestion  and  at  once  began  to  secure  op- 
tions on  the  necessary  land. 

Another  prominent  characteristic  of  Colonel  Vilas 
as  a  regent  was  his  independence.  He  believed  the  re- 
gents were  placed  in  the  positions  they  occupied  to  ad- 
minister the  trust  imposed  upon  them  to  the  best  of  their 
judgment  and  ability.  Therefore,  whenever  a  subject 
was  up  for  consideration,  were  it  great  or  small,  the  sole 
consideration  with  him  was,  is  this  for  the  best  interest 
of  the  university,  and  for  higher  education  in  the  state? 
If  his  conclusion  was  in  the  affirmative,  it  had  his  sup 
port.  What  members  of  the  legislature  might  say,  what 
individuals  of  the  state  might  think,  it  did  not  even  oc- 
cur to  him  to  ask  or  to  care.  These  outside  opinions 
based  upon  imperfect  knowledge  of  the  facts  were  to 
him  as  if  non-existent.  He  believed  if  he  decided  cor- 
rectly, the  results  would  justify  him  in  his  conclusion 
and  the  legislature  and  the  people  would  support  his  ac- 
tion, and  such  was  the  invariable  outcome.  Colonel 
Vilas's  course  clearly  proved  that  courage,  when  com- 
bined with  judgment,  is  wisdom. 

We  have  seen  that  when  Colonel  Vilas  was  not  en- 
gaged in  the  nation's  service,  he  was  almost  continuous- 
ly connected  with  the  university  in  one  capacity  or  an- 
other, from  the  time  he  entered  as  a  preparatory  student 
in  1852  until  his  death  fifty-six  years  later.  Thus  for 

[27] 


more  than  fifty  years,  the  University  of  Wisconsin  was 
in  his  thoughts.  It  is  certain  that  next  to  his  family  he 
loved  this  institution.  Upon  this  matter  those  who  were 
closest  to  him  have  never  had  any  doubts,  but  what  was 
known  to  them  became  known  to  the  world  when  his  will 
was  published.  The  income  of  his  estate,  in  part,  or  in 
whole  if  need  be,  goes  to  his  wife  and  daughter  during 
their  lives.  Legacies  provide  for  remoter  claims.  This 
recognition  given  to  kindred,  the  estate  then  passes  to 
the  university,  but  under  certain  conditions,  and  for  spe- 
cified purposes.  In  providing  for  these  purposes  the 
will  becomes  not  merely  a  gift  but  a  document  contain- 
ing the  wisest  conclusions  of  one  of  the  most  able  men 
of  the  state  as  to  the  proper  lines  of  development  of  the 
university,  and  this  by  one  who  dearly  loved  the  institu- 
tion, and  who  had  its  welfare  in  his  mind  for  more  than 
half  a  century. 

When  the  Vilas  estate  passes  to  the  trustees  for  the 
university,  there  is  provision,  first,  for  a  theater,  a 
memorial  to  the  beloved  son,  Henry  Vilas,  who  was 
graduated  at  the  university  in  1894,  but  who  died  at  an 
early  age. 

After  providing  for  this  memorial,  a  half  of  the  in- 
come of  the  estate  goes,  first,  for  scholarships  and  fellow- 
ships, some  of  which  may  be  traveling  fellowships,  sec- 
ond, for  the  support  of  art  and  music,  and  third,  for  the 
maintenance  of  ten  research  professorships  with  ade- 
quate salaries  and  assistants. 

In  reference  to  the  professorships  Colonel  Vilas  said : 
"These  professorships  are  designed  to  promote  advance- 
ment of  knowledge  rather  than  to  give  instruction,  and 
it  shall  forever  be  a  limitation  on  the  power  to  require 
service  of  any  incumbent  thereof,  that  not  more  than 

[28] 


three  hours  in  one  week,  nor  more  than  one  hour  in  one 
day,  shall  be  exacted  of  him  for  teaching,  lecturing,  or 
other  instruction  to  students,  or  otherwise."  However, 
the  professor  is  left  free  to  render  teaching  service  be- 
yond this  amount  if  he  so  desires. 

"Any  branch  of  human  learning  may  be  selected  as 
the  subject  of  special  study"  by  the  Vilas  professors. 
Note  the  limitless  vision  of  this  fundamental  clause. 
The  purpose  of  the  study  may  be  material,  intellectual, 
or  spiritual.  Its  purposes  may  be  to  increase  the  pro- 
ductivity of  the  soil,  or  to  create  a  poem,  or  a  symphony, 
or  a  painting.  It  may  be  to  eliminate  human  disease,  or 
to  see  deeper  into  the  order  of  nature  with  no  thought 
of  any  human  advantage  other  than  the  widening  of  our 
understanding  of  the  amazing  mysteries  of  the  universe. 
The  study  may  be  upon  the  most  wonderful  of  all  the 
things  of  which  we  have  direct  knowledge,  the  human 
mind, — that  thing  which  has  asked  the  meaning  of  the 
nebulae, — which  has  dared  to  interfere  with  and  direct 
to  well  defined  ends  matter  and  force  and  life,  which  be- 
fore mind  interfered  were  the  subject  of  blind  and  grop- 
ing evolution,  the  most  extravagant  of  all  processes, 
yielding  a  thousand  failures  to  each  success.  I  do  not 
hesitate  to  predict  that  in  the  not  distant  future  the 
Vilas  bequest  will  have  been  devoted  to  all  the  above 
ends  and  to  many  others,  some  of  which  cannot  now  be 
named  because  unknown.  There  can  be  no  broader 
statement  of  endowment  for  research  than  that  of  the 
Vilas  will. 

Colonel  Vilas  recognized  that  a  professor  whose 
work  is  the  advancement  of  knowledge  must  be  ade- 
quately supplied  with  books,  apparatus,  specimens,  and 
assistance,  including  clerical  services,  and  the  will  pro- 

[29] 


vides  that  all  of  these  accessories  for  research  shall  be 
furnished.  According  to  the  will  these  auxiliaries  to  the 
professor  "ought  to  be  so  liberally  supplied,  within 
reasonable  bounds,  that  no  hindrance  or  interruption  of 
his  work  will  become  necessary,  and  the  increase  of 
knowledge  may  have  the  best  favoring  hope  possible  in 
the  circumstances."  This  provision  will  be  deeply  ap- 
preciated by  the  capable  man  who  feels  himself  cur- 
tailed in  his  productive  power  because  of  inadequate 
apparatus,  books,  and  assistants,  in  consequence  of 
which  he  is  obliged  to  work  under  grave  disadvantages, 
not  only  with  reference  to  materials,  but  is  compelled  to 
do  a  large  amount  of  routine  work  which  could  be  more 
easily  and  economically  performed  by  an  assistant  in  an 
earlier  stage  of  development. 

While  a  limited  amount  of  instruction  only  is  re- 
quired of  a  professor,  and  according  to  the  will  he  is 
"free  to  pursue  his  fixed  lines  of  research  in  his  own  way, 
still  it  may  be  expected  that,  in  fact,  each  professor  will 
gather  about  him  as  fellow  workers  and  assistants,  so 
far  as  may  be,  students  who  will  both  gain  learning  and 
inspiration  to  promote  it,  from  their  participation  in  his 
pursuits  and  the  opportunities  of  such  association, 
which  he  will  both  desire  and  best  know  how  to  incul- 
cate in  them." 

Here;  again  we  have  the  wonderful  insight  into  edu 
cational  theory,  which  appreciated  that  the  best  results 
can  only  be  obtained  by  a  proper  combination  of  in- 
vestigation and  instruction.  The  man  who  is  an  in- 
vestigator only  is  likely  to  become  one-sided,  because 
lacking  the  stimulus  which  comes  from  contact  with 
eager  and  broadly  inquiring  youth.  It  is  equally  cer- 
tain, that  the  instructor  who  only  passes  on  to  the  stu- 

[30] 


dents  what  others  have  collected,  sooner  or  later  be- 
comes dulled.  The  purpose  of  these  professorships  is  to 
advance  knowledge,  and  this  can  only  continue  indefi- 
nitely by  the  creation  of  new  scholars.  From  the  time 
of  the  ancient  philosophers  it  has  been  plain  that  the 
most  efficient  method  of  producing  scholars  is  for  the 
man  having  high  inspirational  power  to  gather  about 
him  a  group  of  disciples  who  shall  share  in  his  work, 
and  some  of  whom  may  go  further  than  their  master, 
even  as  Plato  went  beyond  Socrates.  The  ideal  univer- 
sity is  one  in  which  each  of  its  professors  is  both  a  teach- 
er and  a  creator  of  things  to  be  taught. 

These  research  professorships,  while  not  placed 
first  in  order,  are  placed  "first  in  importance  among  the 
purposes  of  the  trust."  The  above  provisions  for  their 
support,  including  liberal  salaries,  assistants,  materials, 
a  limited  amount  of  instructional  work,  and  close  per 
sonal  relations  with  students,  are  an  epitome  of  the 
situation  in  the  best  German  universities,  which  are  ad- 
mitted to  stand  first  among  the  institutions  of  the  world 
in  the  advancement  of  knowledge.  The  accumulated 
university  wisdom  of  the  past  centuries,  Colonel  Vilas 
has  concentrated  in  his  great  state  document  for  the  ad- 
vancement of  knowledge. 

When  the  ten  research  professorships  shall  have  been 
established  fifty  additional  undergraduate  scholarships 
and  fifty  more  fellowships  are  to  be  founded,  not  less 
than  one-fifth  of  which  shall  go  to  "qualified  candidates 
of  negro  blood  if  such  present  themselves.77 

Then,  if  the  funds  permit,  additional  professorships, 
assistant  professorships,  and  instructorships  are  to  be 
established,  if  these  seem  the  greatest  necessities  to  the 
university  authorities.  But  this  clause  is  modified  by 

[31] 


the  statement :  "Though  provision  for  chairs  of  instruc- 
tion is  left  discretionary,  it  ought  ever  to  be  remembered 
that,  aside  from  scholarships  and  fellowships  to  aid  de- 
serving students,  the  university  may  be  best  raised  to 
the  highest  excellence  as  a  seat  of  learning  and  educa- 
tion, through  extraneous  aid,  by  abundant  support  in 
pushing  the  confines  of  knowledge:  the  especial  object 
of  this  trust."  The  will  continues  "the  state  may  be  con- 
fidentally  expected  to  furnish  sufficient  instruction  to 
its  youth,  and  other  sources  of  contribution  and  revenue 
will  supply  any  lack." 

Finally,  additional  buildings  may  be  constructed 
from  a  portion  of  the  income,  provided  the  trustees 
or  regents  find  this  advisable.  But  a  part  of  the  income 
is  to  increase  the  principal  of  the  estate  until  it  reaches 
twenty  and  finally  thirty  millions  of  dollars. 

As  many  of  this  audience  well  know,  I  have  steadily 
maintained  that  a  state  university  under  a  democracy 
may  be  of  as  high  a  grade  as  a  state  university  under  a 
monarchy,  that  the  advancement  of  knowledge  is  a  func- 
tion of  the  state  university  as  well  as  instruction.  In- 
struction and  investigation  must  both  be  strong  within 
the  university,  for  without  this  each  will  fail  of  the  high- 
est effectiveness.  Further  the  gospel  of  knowledge  must 
be  carried  to  the  people  through  every  possible  medium. 
The  scope  of  the  university  must  become  commensurate 
with  humanity.  Hence,  I  have  continuously  maintained 
that  the  work  of  the  university  should  extend  from  ap- 
plied science  to  the  fine  arts. 

These  positions  are  sustained  by  the  deliberate  judg- 
ment of  one  who  has  studied  the  university  and  the  edu- 
cation of  the  state  for  half  a  century.  Colonel  Vilas  so 
firmly  believed  the  principle  that  research  and  creative 

[32] 


X*t  ^V 

'      O     THE 

UNIVERSITY    J 

OF 


scholarship  are  profoundly  important  functions  of  a 
state  university,  that  he  dedicated  the  accumulations  of 
a  lifetime  to  their  furtherance. 

The  provision  of  the  will  by  which  a  part  of  the  in- 
come of  the  estate  is  set  aside  to  increase  the  principal 
until  it  finally  becomes  thirty  millions  of  dollars,  is  ad- 
ditional evidence  of  the  far-sightedness  of  Colonel  Vilas. 
He  wished  not  only  to  provide  funds  for  the  advance- 
ment of  knowledge,  but  he  was  determined  that  finally 
there  should  be  adequate  funds  for  these  purposes,  even 
if  at  the  outset  the  amount  available  was  deficient. 

However,  it  is  my  profound  belief  that  the  conviction 
of  Colonel  Vilas,  that  at  the  university  the  field  of  crea- 
tive scholarship  is  the  one  most  likely  to  be  neglected, 
will  go  far  to  counteract  any  current  lack  of  funds  for 
this  purpose. 

Thus,  the  benefits  of  Colonel  Vilas's  will  are  likely  to 
influence  the  development  of  the  university  long  before 
financial  advantages  are  received.  Those  who  have  been 
striving  for  the  construction  of  the  university  along  the 
highest,  as  well  as  the  broadest  lines,  now  have  the  pow- 
erful moral  support  of  one  of  the  ablest  and  most  dis- 
tinguished citizens  that  has  lived  in  this  state,  and  the 
man  who,  by  long  study  of  educational  problems  in  the 
university,  has  the  best  right  to  speak  as  to  its  future. 

The  will  of  Colonel  Vilas  is  not  merely  a  deed  of  gift 
of  his  property  to  the  university ;  it  is  a  gift  of  his  high- 
est thought,  matured  through  years  of  consideration  of 
the  educational  problems  of  the  state.  It  is,  indeed, 
possible  that  this  gift  of  his  mind  may  be  even  greater 
in  its  influence  upon  the  development  of  the  university 
than  the  gift  of  his  property.  Thus  Colonel  Vilas's  will 
is  not  merely  a  financial  bequest,  but  it  is  a  profound 

[33] 


state  paper  which  is  certain  to  perpetually  influence  the 
development  of  higher  education  in  this  commonwealth. 
It  is  impossible  for  me  to  express  adequately  my  per- 
sonal feeling  in  this  matter.  Throughout  my  adminis- 
trative wrork  for  the  university,  I  relied  upon  Colonel 
Vilas  as  my  most  influential  supporter.  No  plan  for  the 
advancement  of  the  university,  and  through  the  univer- 
sity, the  state,  was  too  large  to  be  understood  by  him. 
Nor  did  he  ever  lack  faith  that  the  highest  ideals  for  the 
university  would  be  ultimately  realized.  In  the  death 
of  Colonel  Vilas  I  should  indeed  have  lost  my  most  in- 
fluential co-worker  had  it  not  been  that  by  his  will  he  has 
left  a  potent  support  for  the  same  ideals.  In  the  future 
as  in  the  past,  I  shall  feel  myself  working  side  by  side 
with  the  spirit  of  Colonel  Vilas  for  the  advancement  of 
this  beloved  institution. 


L34] 


APPENDIX 


LAST  WILL  AND  TESTAMENT 

OF 
WILLIAM  FREEMAN  VILAS 


I,  William  F.  Vilas,  of  the  city  of  Madison,  in  the  state  of  Wis- 
consin, contemplating  the  end  of  life  and  earnestly  hoping  that — 
after  they  to  whom  with  our  lost  loved  ones,  I  owe  my  chiefest  hap- 
piness in  life,  shall  have  enjoyed  all  the  reasonable  use  and  benefit 
possible  to  them  from  my  means — I  may  be  able  so  to  direct  the  ac- 
cumulations of  my  labors  as  most  to  contribute  to  the  welfare  of  my 
fellow-men  in  time  to  be,  Do  Make,  Publish  and  Declare  this  my 
Last  Will  and  Testament,  in  manner  following,  that  is  to  say: 

The  expenses  of  my  funeral,  which  I  desire  to  be  simple  and  un- 
ostentatious, all  costs  of  administration,  and  all  debts  which  I  may 
be  owing  at  the  time  of  my  death,  and  which  shall  then  be  due  and 
payable,  I  desire  to  be  paid  promptly,  and  that  my  estate  may  be 
settled  and  closed  by  due  final  decree  and  all  properties  passed  into 
the  hands  of  my  trustees,  as  such,  to  execute  the  trust  hereinafter 
created,  as  soon  as  all  legal  notices  may  be  duly  given,  and  the  same 
may  be  conveniently  done.  My  dearly  beloved  wife  has  full  knowl- 
edge of  this  will,  participates  all  the  desires  and  purposes  of  it, 
equally  with  myself,  and  accepts  as  entirely  satisfactory  the  pro- 
visions made  for  her.  Were  her  desires  different,  the  provisions 
herein  made  would  have  met  them;  for,  as  we  have  lived  in  affection, 
our  last  wishes  are  in  concord. 

To  my  dearly  beloved  wife,  Anna  Matilda  Vilas,  I  first  bequeath 
all  wearing  apparel,  personal  ornaments,  household  furniture,  pic- 
tures, ornamental  articles,  provisions  and  stores,  all  the  books  which 
she  may  desire  to  retain  from  sale,  and  all  other  movable  articles  in 
our  home,  together  with  the  horses,  carriages,  harnesses,  robes  and 
all  like  apparel  and  other  things  in  the  barn,  all  my  boats  and  in- 

[35] 


terest  in  boats  in  the  boat  house,  and  in  short,  all  movables  in  use 
with  or  appertaining  to  that  part  of  block  94  in  the  city  of  Madison 
which  has  constituted  our  homestead  for  now  over  twenty-four  years. 
And,  except  as  required  for  payment  of  expenses  and  debts  and 
as  above  bequeathed,  all  my  estate,  properties  and  interests,  real, 
personal  and  mixed,  of  whatsoever  description  and  wheresoever 
situated,  of  which  I  may  be  seized  or  possessed  or  to  which  I  may 
be  in  any  manner  entitled  at  the  time  of  my  death,  I  give,  devise 
and  bequeath  to  the  four  trustees  hereinafter  provided  for,  in  fee 
simple  and  absolute  ownership,  To  Have  and  to  Hold  to  them,  their 
survivors  and  successors,  their  heirs  and  assigns  forever. 

And  I  authorize  and  empower  my  said  trustees  to  conduct  and 
carry  on  any  business,  business  operation  or  transaction,  in  which 
I  may  be  engaged  at  the  time  of  my  death,  with  all  the  powers  of 
ownership  or  which  I  myself  might  in  life  enjoy  and  exercise;  to 
hold  any  stock  in  any  corporation  which  I  may  be  possessed  of  or 
they  may  acquire,  to  vote  the  same  at  all  corporate  meetings,  to  col- 
lect and  receive  dividends  thereon,  to  sell  and  dispose  thereof  and 
duly  to  assign  the  same.  And  I  also  authorize  and  empower  my  said 
trustees  to  sell  and  dispose  of,  grant,  bargain  and  convey,  with  all 
proper  covenants  for  title  if  they  think  such  needful,  all  or  any  part 
of  the  property  herein  devised  and  bequeathed  to  them,  without  ex- 
ception, and  also  any  which  they  may  acquire  in  the  execution  of 
this  trust,  from  time  to  time,  in  their  discretion,  at  public  or  pri- 
vate sale,  for  such  prices  and  upon  such  terms  of  payment  and  of 
credit  as  to  them  may  seem  most  advantageous  to  my  estate;  to 
execute,  acknowledge  and  deliver  any  and  all  convenient  or  neces- 
sary deeds,  contracts,  conveyances,  bills  of  sale,  or  other  instru- 
ments, which  any  such  transaction  may  seem  to  them  to  require;  to 
take  to  themselves  any  notes,  bonds,  obligations,  mortgages,  pledges, 
or  other  securities  for  money  to  be  paid,  whether  upon  any  such  sale 
or  upon  any  loan  or  investment;  to  collect  and  receive  payment  of 
any  such,  or  of  any  sum  in  any  wise  due  to  my  estate,  and  give  all 
proper  acquittances,  releases,  satisfactions,  and  discharges  thereof; 
to  invest  and  reinvest,  as  often  as  need  be,  from  time  to  time,  by 
loan  or  purchase,  in  their  discretion,  any  and  all  money  or  property 
coming  to  their  hands;  to  compound  and  compromise  at  any  time 
any  debt  or  obligation  to,  or  claimed  by,  my  said  estate  or  them- 
selves; to  borrow,  at  any  time,  or  from  time  to  time,  any  sum  or 
sums  of  money  requisite,  in  their  discretion,  to  carry  on  any  business 
which  I  may  leave  in  operation  and  they  may  decide  to  carry  on,  if 
any  such  there  be,  or  which  may  be  at  any  time  convenient  or  de- 
sirable in  order  to  make  any  good  investment  in  anticipation  of  in- 
come to  be  later  derived  to  the  estate  from  any  sources;  and  also, 
generally,  to  deal  with,  manage  and  carry  on  any  business,  affairs 

[36] 


or  dealings  in  connection  with  my  estate,  in  their  discretion,  with 
all  the  powers  of  absolute  ownership. 

But,  while  not  hereby  limiting  any  of  the  powers  so  given  them, 
I  commend  to  my  said  trustees  as  the  objects  of  attainment,  first, 
to  conduct  to  the  most  satisfactory  conclusion  at  the  earliest  reason- 
able period,  any  business  operations  in  which  I  may  happen  to  be 
personally  engaged  at  the  time  of  my  death;  and,  secondly,  to  place 
the  properties  of  my  estate  in  the  most  advantageous  form  to  yield  a 
certain  annual  income,  or  increment  of  value,  for  that  purpose  hold- 
ing and  retaining  all  productive  property,  such  as  rentable  or  im- 
proving real  estate,  bank-stocks,  Nekoosa  Paper  company  or  other 
good  corporate  stocks,  loans,  mortgages,  or  the  like,  and  buying  more 
as  opportunity  offers,  and  disposing  of  unproductive  and  unpromis- 
ing property,  while  retaining  such,  however,  as  shall  promise  in  the 
future,  though  somewhat  distant,  the  probability  of  large  increment; 
having  here  in  view,  the  public  destination  of  the  estate  hereinafter 
provided  for;  and  I  purpose,  if  time  be  given  me,  to  conduct  my 
affairs  henceforth  with  a  view  to  leave  my  estate  in  such  form  as 
shall  impose  the  least  possible  burden  on  iny  trustees  in  these  par- 
ticulars : 

But  all  in  trust,  nevertheless,  subject  to  the  directions  and  for 
the  purposes  hereinafter  expressed,  as  follows,  to-wit: 

First.  To  pay  all  debts  which  I  may  be  owing  at  the  time  of 
my  death  but  which  shall  not  then  be  payable,  if  any,  and  all  which 
my  trustees  may  contract  in  the  conduct  of  their  trust;  and  I  pur- 
pose to  leave  no  debts  of  any  substantial  amount  unpaid,  now  ow- 
ing none  such. 

Second.  To  manage  and  conduct  my  estate,  by  the  wise  exer- 
cise of  the  powers  herein  abundantly  given  them,  so  as  to  place  the 
entire  capital — so  nearly  as  may  be  well  done  in  view  of  the  proper 
principles  of  management  of  which  suggestion  has  been  given — in 
safe  and  productive  form  to  yield  the  best  annual  income  in  money; 
but  the  safety  of  the  principal  should  always  overrule  all  risks  that 
may  be  incurred  in  striving  for  a  greater  income  and  the  purchase 
of  all  mining  stocks,  and  the  like,  is  entirely  forbidden.  They  shall 
pay  all  taxes,  charges,  assessments  and  public  dues  which  may  be 
lawfully  demanded  from  time  to  time;  all  reasonable  and  proper  ex- 
penses for  management  of  the  estate,  including  counsel  fees  when 
they  think  it  necessary  to  employ  counsel. 

And  I  especially  direct  that  out  of  the  income  of  the  estate  they 
shall  pay  all  taxes  and  assessments  levied  annually  or  otherwise,  so 
long  as  my  wife  shall  live,  upon  our  homestead  (and  all  her  furni- 
ture therein)  consisting  of  two  hundred  feet  of  frontage  on  Oilman 
street  in  Madison  in  block  94  according  to  the  city  plat  and  extend- 
ing thence  to  Lake  Mendota  which  is  the  property  of  my  wife,  in- 

[37] 


eluding  both  houses  thereon,  and  shall  also  make  all  repairs  neces- 
sary to  the  full  enjoyment  thereof  by  her  and  my  darling  daughter. 
Mary  Esther,  and  any  improvements  and  alterations  they  may  think 
desirable,  charging  all  such  expenditures  to  the  Income  Account. 

Separate  and  independent  books  of  account  of  the  estate  shall 
be  opened  and  carefully  kept  by  my  trustees,  in  which  shall  be  first 
entered  under  proper  headings  of  account  a  complete  inventory  of 
all  properties  of  the  estate;  and  thereafter  all  items  and  transac- 
tions shall  be  entered  according  to  the  double-entry  system.  They 
shall  fix  some  day  in  the  year  as  the  clearance  day  and  beginning  of 
the  fiscal  year,  at  which  time  an  inventory  shall  be  annually  taken, 
all  accounts  closed  and  balances  brought  to  new  account  and  an  ex- 
act statement  shown  by  proper  transfer  to  income  account  of  the  net 
annual  income  of  the  estate  realized  in  the  year  then  past;  but  in 
making  such  inventory,  so  far  as  the  same  shall  be  carried  to  new 
accounts,  no  property  shall  be  inventoried  with  any  increment  of 
value  by  estimation  but  all  losses  shall  be  charged  off,  if  any;  so 
that  the  net  income  shall  be  stated  according  to  the  actual  money 
gains  realized  during  the  preceding  year.  And  on  such  day  all  net 
income  realized  which  shall  not  be  required  by  and  appropriated  to 
my  wife  as  hereinafter  provided,  shall  be  covered  in  and  added  to 
the  principal  of  the  estate. 

Third.  My  said  trustees  shall  pay  over  to  my  dearly  beloved 
wife  so  long  as  she  shall  survive  so  much  of  the  net  annual  income 
of  my  estate  as  she  shall  desire  to  use,  meaning  all  of  it  if  she  so 
desire,  in  such  sums  from  time  to  time  during  the  year  as  she  shall 
require  it,  to  be  by  her  expended,  employed  or  given  away,  as  she 
in  her  good  pleasure  may  wish  to  do,  without  other  limitation  than 
her  wishes  fix. 

To  her  I  leave  it  entirely  to  give  therefrom  to  our  darling  daugh- 
ter, Mary  Esther  V.  Hanks,  so  much  as  she  may  think  wise;  and 
also  to  make  such  allowances  to  our  beloved  daughter,  Jessie  Ford 
Vilas;  suggesting  that  it  be  from  fifty  dollars  per  month  to  one  hun- 
dred dollars  per  month,  according  to  her  needs  and  the  amount  of 
available  income  to  my  wife,  and  to  her  judgment  and  wisdom,  so 
long  as  Jessie  may  remain  unmarried,  and  also  to  make  any 
other  gifts  she  may  feel  inclined,  out  of  such  income,  of  which  we 
have  conversed  together.  But  I  intend  hereby  to  impose  no  obliga- 
tion, nor  any  sense  of  obligation  upon  my  wife,  nor  any  claim  upon 
her  or  upon  my  estate;  purposing  only  suggestion  of  such  consid- 
eration to  others  as  the  income  will  warrant  without  detriment  to 
her  enjoyment  of  all  the  pleasures  of  life  that  may  remain  to  her  and 
as  her  wisdom  may  approve.  So  also  I  leave  to  her  the  care  of  the 
cemetery  where  lie  our  lost  ones,  and  the  making  of  any  special  pro- 
vision she  may  think  fit. 

[38] 


It  is  my  expectation  that  the  net  cash  income  of  the  estate  will 
be  sufficient  for  all  her  needs  and  leave  to  spare  more  than  she  will 
require  for  other  purposes.  And  I  know  that  if  this  prove  correct, 
she  will  find  satisfaction  in  the  increase  of  the  fund  designed  for  the 
advancement  of  knowledge  and  education,  as  an  object  of  mutual  de- 
sire by  both  of  us. 

But  in  case  at  any  time,  or  at  divers  times,  there  shall  hap- 
pen any  deficiency  of  income  for  any  reason,  so  that  what  is  avail 
able  to  my  wife  is  insufficient  for  her  needs  and  reasonable  wishes, 
then  I  authorize  my  trustees  in  their  discretion  to  pay  over  to  her 
for  sole  use  according  to  her  pleasure  any  further  sums  out  of  the 
principal  which  they  shall  think  fit,  without  other  limit  than  their 
considerate  judgment.  And  though  hoping  no  misfortune  will  re- 
quire it,  yet,  in  any  such  case,  I  enjoin  on  my  trustees  a  generous 
liberality  in  so  providing  for  her,  to  the  end  that  my  dearly  beloved 
wife  may  never  be  in  want  or  distressed  for  any  lack  of  money  to 
use  according  to  her  reasonable  desires. 

Fourth.  From  and  after  the  decease  of  my  wife — or  after  mine, 
if  she  shall  not  survive  me — I  direct  that  my  said  trustees  shall  pay 
over  to  our  darling  daughter,  Mary  Esther  Vilas  Hanks,  twenty 
thousand  dollars  ($20,000)  in  each  and  every  year  out  of  the  net 
annual  income  of  my  estate  in  quarter  yearly  installments  of  five 
thousand  dollars  each  in  advance.  If  the  net  annual  income,  after 
paying  all  other  charges  and  outlays  required  therefrom,  including 
the  allowance  to  Jessie  Ford  Vilas  hereinafter  provided  for,  shall 
be  in  any  year  insufficient  to  pay  all  said  twenty  thousand  dollars, 
the  payment  in  such  year,  save  as  hereinafter  provided,  shall  be 
limited  to  the  net  income,  but  the  remainder  unpaid  shall  be  paid 
out  of  the  income  of  the  next  succeeding  year  or  years  when  there 
shall  be  excess  until  all  arrearages  shall  be  fully  paid. 

In  addition  to  the  foregoing,  if  the  title  to  our  homestead  before 
mentioned,  now  held  by  my  wife,  shall  become  vested  in  me  before 
my  death,  I  hereby  give  and  devise  the  sole,  exclusive  and  full  use 
and  occupancy  thereof  to  our  said  daughter,  Mary  Esther,  during 
her  natural  life  to  hold  and  enjoy  according  to  her  pleasure — includ- 
ing as  part  of  such  homestead  property  the  house  now  occupied  by 
her  husband  and  herself  and  all  other  buildings  and  appurtenances 
on  or  appertaining  to  such  homestead  property  as  hereinbefore  des- 
cribed. And  in  such  case,  and  also  in  the  event  that  such  title  shall 
not  come  to  me  before  death  but  that  my  wife  shall  provide  for  the 
use  of  the  same  by  our  said  daughter,  I  direct  my  said  trustees  to 
pay  out  of  the  income  of  my  estate  all  taxes  and  assessments  leved 
upon  the  said  homestead  property,  or  any  part  of  it,  by  public  au- 
thority, and  the  entire  cost  of  all  repairs,  and  of  all  reasonable  alter- 
ations and  improvements  they  may  deem  it  proper  to  make  on  the 

[39] 


said  property;  hereby  giving  them  full  power  and  discretion  in  the 
matter;  so  long  as  our  said  daughter  Mary  Esther  shall  live. 

The  income  of  my  estate  may  reasonably  be  expected  to  exceed 
all  the  charges  imposed  upon  it  by  this  will,  with  a  remainder  to  be 
annually  carried  to  principal.  But,  in  further  provision  for  our 
daughter,  Mary  Esther,  if  it  shall  happen  from  any  cause  that  the 
net  income  available  for  her  under  the  foregoing  provision  shall  fall 
below  twelve,  or  even  below  fifteen  thousand  dollars  in  any  year,  I 
authorize  and  direct  my  said  trustees,  but  in  their  discretion  only, 
to  give  so  much  of  the  principal  from  time  to  time,  or  at  any  time,  as 
they  shall  think  fit  and  proper,  to  our  said  daughter,  Mary  Esther, 
not  exceeding,  with  the  income  paid  her,  twenty  thousand  dollars  a 
year;  to  the  end  that,  if  necessity  arise  she  may  be  comfortably  and 
suitably  provided  for  according  to  her  station  and  habits  of  life. 

No  gift  of  money  or  other  thing  by  myself  or  wife  while  living 
to  our  said  daughter  shall  be  reckoned  as  an  advancement  or  in  any 
wise  to  diminish  the  foregoing  provisions  for  her. 

Fifth.  From  and  after  the  decease  of  my  wife — or  after  mine  if 
she  shall  not  survive  me — I  direct  my  said  trustees  to  pay  to  our  be- 
loved daughter-in-law,  Jessie  Ford  Vilas,  if  she  shall  not  have  re- 
married, the  sum  of  one  hundred  dollars  per  month  in  advance,  so 
long  as  she  shall  remain  unmarried.  And  as  this  is  intended  as  the 
continuance  of  an  allowance  which  has  been  made  since  the  loss  of 
our  dearly  beloved  Henry,  as  a  contribution  merely,  in  addition  to 
her  inheritance  from  him,  to  her  comfort  while  living  with  her  own 
parents,  and  it  is  impossible  to  foresee  her  future  necessities,  I  also 
authorize  my  said  trustees,  but  entirely  in  their  discretion,  to  in- 
crease at  any  time  for  so  long  as  they  think  best,  the  said  monthly 
allowance  to  any  sum  not  exceeding  three  hundred  dollars  per  month, 
having  reference  to  the  income  of  the  estate  and  other  charges  upon 
it;  or  to  make  her  occasional  special  allowances  for  special  needs. 
Payments  under  this  paragraph  to  be  all  made  from  the  net  annual 
income. 

Sixth.  If  the  title  thereto  shall  vest  in  me  before  my  death 
and  if  my  son-in-law  and  daughter  shall  reside  in  our  dwelling  upon 
our  homestead  before  mentioned  after  my  wife's  decease  until  the 
termination  of  the  life  of  our  daughter,  Mary  Esther,  his  wife,  I  give 
and  devise  to  my  good  son-in-law,  Louis  M.  Hanks,  if  he  shall  sur- 
vive my  daughter,  the  like  use  and  occupancy  of  our  said  homestead 
property  during  his  natural  life;  and  I  also  bequeath  him  in  the 
same  contingency  ten  thousand  dollars  per  year  during  his  life  to  be 
paid  by  my  trustees  from  the  net  income  of  the  estate  in  four  equal 
quarterly  installments  in  advance,  from  and  after  the  decease  of  our 
daughter,  his  wife,  or  so  much  thereof  in  any  year  as  the  said  net 
income  shall  be  sufficient  to  pay;  my  said  trustees  also  to  pay  the 

[40] 


taxes  on  said  homestead  while  he  shall  occupy  the  same  by  virtue 
of  this  devise  or  of  any  like  provision  made  by  my  wife.  And  the 
like  sum  of  ten  thousand  dollars  per  year  I  also  bequeath  him,  to  be 
paid  as  aforesaid,  in  case  he  shall  not  derive  it  by  the  foregoing  pro- 
vision but  shall  become  entitled  to  such  use  and  occupation  after 
the  death  of  our  daughter  by  virtue  only  of  any  provision  made  by 
my  wife.  This  that  he  may  not  be  disturbed  in  his  residence  in  the 
contingency  mentioned. 

Seventh.  To  each  and  every  child  born  to  my  daughter,  Mary 
Esther,  who  may  survive  her,  I  give  and  bequeath  fifty  thousand  dol- 
lars, to  be  paid  so  soon  after  her  death  as  my  said  trustees  may 
conveniently  provide,  not  exceeding  one  year,  but  without  interest. 

Eighth.  I  direct  my  said  trustees  to  pay  any  and  all  inheritance 
or  succession  taxes,  imposts  or  excises  which  may  be  levied  pursuant 
to  any  law  of  the  United  States  or  of  the  state  of  Wisconsin  on  my 
estate,  or  on  or  because  of  any  gift,  devise  or  bequest  hereinbefore 
made,  so  that  each  of  said  devisees  and  legatees  shall  receive,  so  far 
as  possible,  the  provision  made  intact,  save  only  that  such  payment 
shall  be  charged  to  the  income  account  if  sufficient  without  impair- 
ment of  the  legacies  made  therefrom ;  but  neither  my  wife  nor  daugh- 
ter shall  be  deprived  of  any  sum  either  may  be  entitled  otherwise  to 
have  and  may  require  from  the  income,  by  reason  hereof;  but,  if  need 
be  for  the  requirements  of  either,  payments  shall  be  made  from  the 
principal.  All  ordinary  and  current  taxes  and  assessments  on  my 
estate  and  its  properties,  and  as  well  all  others,  though  extraordinary, 
which  may  be  levied  by  public  authority,  shall  be  paid  out  of  the 
income  of  my  estate. 

Ninth.  After  the  decease  of  our  daughter,  Mary  Esther,  if  she 
shall  survive  my  wife,  and  if  my  wife  shall  survive  my  daughter 
then  after  her  decease,  I  desire  and  direct  my  said  trustees  to  pre- 
pare, before  the  next  session  of  the  legislature  of  Wisconsin,  a  com- 
plete inventory  of  the  property  of  my  estate,  as  it  shall  then  be  (the 
last  item  of  which  shall  be  of  any  and  everything,  right  or  interest, 
real  or  personal,  belonging  to  it,  though  not  specifically  mentioned) 
to  which  they  shall  affix  the  value,  or  their  'estimate  of  the  value, 
of  each  item  of  property  therein  included,  and  shall  add  a  statement 
of  any  charges  remaining  still  imposed  upon  it  by  this  will,  or  by 
law,  unsatisfied  or  undischarged.  And  within  thirty  days  after  the 
legislature  shall  have  first  convened  subsequently  to  the  event  afore- 
said, my  said  trustees  shall  cause  to  be  laid  before  the  legislature,  a 
communication  in  the  following  terms,  signed  by  them,  with  a  copy 
of  such  inventory  affixed  thereto,  to-wit: 

To  the  Legislature  of  Wisconsin: 

The  undersigned,  trustees  of  the  estate  of  William  F.  Vilas,  late 
of  the  city  of  Madison,  by  authority  and  pursuant  to  the  instruction 

[41] 


of  his  last  will  and  testament,  respectfully  submit  to  your  honorable 
body  the  following  proposed  instrument  of  conveyance,  by  which  in 
case  you  shall  authorize  its  acceptance  by  the  passage  of  the  neces- 
sary act,  we  are  empowered  to  grant,  upon  the  terms  and  conditions 
therein  expressed,  to  trustees,  to  aid  the  University  of  Wisconsin  in 
the  advancement  of  learning,  all  the  property  which  is  described  in 
the  annexed  inventory,  (but  subject  to  the  temporary  charges  therein 
stated  (if  any)  ),  that  is  to  say: 

DEED  OF  GIFT  AND  CONVEYANCE. 

The  undersigned,  trustees  of  the  estate  of  William  F.  Vilas,  late 
of  the  city  of  Madison,  in  the  state  of  Wisconsin,  thereto  duly  em- 
powered by  his  last  will  and  testament,  and  by  virtue  and  in  consid- 
eration of  an  act  of  the  legislature  of  Wisconsin,  entitled  "An  Act 
to  validate  and  accept  the  gift  for  the  use  of  the  University  of  Wis- 
consin of  the  late  William  F.  Vilas,"  approved 

190. . .,  by  which  our  proposal  of  this  grant  was  agreed  to, 

Do  hereby  give,  grant,  bargain,  sell  and  convey  in  fee  simple 
absolute  to  the  five  trustees  hereinafter  named,  and  to  their  several 
and  respective  successors  as  such  trustees  forever,  the  following  real 
and  personal  property,  to-wit: 

(Here  to  be  properly  described  for  legal  conveyance  all  the 
property  in  the  said  inventory  mentioned,  together  with  general 
words  to  cover  all  interests  of  every  kind,  subject  only  to  any  charges 
thereon  yet  remaining  unsatisfied.) 

To  have  and  to  hold  to  them  and  their  said  successors  forever, 
with  all  the  rights,  privileges  and  appurtenances  thereunto  belong- 
ing or  in  any  wise  appertaining.  And  the  said  trustees  and  their  said 
successors  are  invested  forever  .with  the  full  and  perfect  power  of 
absolute  ownership  to  grant,  bargain,  sell,  convey,  assign,  and  transfer 
the  said  property,  or  any  part  thereof,  and  likewise  also  any  proper- 
ty, real,  personal  or  mixed,  which  may  ever  result  therefrom,  or  in 
any  form  or  manner  come  to  their  hands  as  such  trustees  at  any 
time  and  from  time  to  time  forever;  also  to  make  any  disposition 
or  use  of  the  same  whatever,  to  give  any  covenants  or  make  any 
agreements  not  in  violation  of  law,  relating  thereto,  which  to  them 
may  seem  proper;  also  to  take  any  measures  for  the  safety  and  care 
thereof,  including  insurance,  which  they  shall  think  fit;  also  to  in- 
vest the  same  and  all  the  proceeds  thereof,  and  all  that  may  in  any 
manner  ever  result  therefrom,  in  any  real  estate  or  personal  prop- 
erty of  whatsoever  character,  whether  by  purchase  or  by  loan,  with 
a  view  to  the  production  of  income  therefrom,  and  so  to  re-invest 
from  time  to  time  forever  all,  or  any  part,  of  the  property  or  moneys 
of  the  trust  estate  hereby  created;  also  to  collect  and  receive  pay- 
ment of  any  moneys  due  said  trust  estate,  including  rents,  interest, 

[42] 


dividends,  gains  and  profits  in  any  form,  to  discharge  any  mortgages 
or  other  securities,  to  represent  and  vote  upon  any  stock  or  interest 
in  any  corporation  or  association,  to  compound,  compromise  and  set- 
tle any  and  all  claims,  debts,  demands  or  obligations,  arising  to  or 
from  them,  the  said  trustees,  or  the  trust  estate;  and,  in  fine,  to  do 
any  act  or  exercise  any  power  or  privilege  over  or  concerning  such 
trust  estate,  or  any  interest  or  property  appertaining  thereto  which 
absolute  ownership  authorizes  them  to  do  or  exercise  at  any  time 
and  at  all  times  forever,  subject  only  to  the  limitations  of  the  law 
and  this  deed  of  gift: 

But  in  trust,  nevertheless,  to  observe  the  directions  and  execute 
the  purposes  hereinafter  expressed  and  set  forth,  as  follows,  to-wit: 

First.  They  shall  keep  in  proper  bound  volumes  a  complete  rec- 
ord of  all  their  meetings,  proceedings  and  orders,  the  first  volume  of 
which  shall  contain  in  the  beginning  a  transcription  of  this  deed  of 
gift  and  of  the  act  of  the  legislature  validating  and  accepting  the 
same;  and  thereafter  of  any  further  acts  of  the  legislature  relating 
to  the  execution  of  the  trust.  And  at  the  end  of  each  fifty  years 
from  its  beginning  they  shall  compile  and  record  in  such  book  a 
succinct  history  of  the  trust  estate,  showing  the  method  of  its  ad- 
ministration, its  course  of  progress  or  increase,  the  objects  accom- 
plished and  expenditures  made,  properly  classified,  and  the  condi- 
tion of  the  estate,  its  properties  and  their  productiveness,  at  the  end 
of  such  period,  with  any  other  facts  of  importance;  and  shall  cause 
the  same  to  be  published,  for  the  information  of  all  interested,  in 
proper  printed  form. 

They  shall  keep  books  of  account,  by  the  double-entry  system, 
showing  the  condition  of  the  estate  and  all  their  pecuniary  transac- 
tions, which  shall  be  opened  with  a  detailed  inventory  of  all  prop- 
erties at  first  received  by  them;  and  they  shall  by  regulation  or  by- 
law fix  some  day  as  the  beginning  of  the  fiscal  year  of  the  estate, 
and  on  such  day  annually  enter  an  inventory  of  all  the  possessions 
and  interests  of  the  estate  as  then  existing,  and  thereupon  close  all 
accounts  and  carry  to  the  capital  account  the  net  gains,  (or  losses, 
if  so  be),  save  only  such  share  of  the  net  income  as  they  shall  be 
authorized  by  this  deed  to  expend  or  to  hold  as  a  surplus  to  insure 
against  failure  to  maintain  and  establish  scale  of  expenditure;  and 
any  and  all  other  gains  or  increase  existing  at  the  end  of  any  fiscal 
year  shall  thereafter  forever  remain  parcel  of  the  principal  of  the 
estate  and  never  be  paid  out  or  expended,  save  only  in  the  special 
cases  in  this  deed  hereinafter  provided  for. 

In  making  such  inventory  no  property  of  the  estate  shall  ever 
be  entered  at  more  than  its  cost,  or  originally  inventoried  value,  to 
the  end  that  no  gains  shall  be  reckoned  but  such  as  shall  have  been 
realized;  but  depreciations  shall  be  charged  off  according  to  the 

[43] 


judgment  of  the  trustees.  Within  thirty  days  after  the  beginning 
of  each  fiscal  year,  the  trustees  shall  report  in  writing  to  the  regents 
of  the  University  of  Wisconsin  (and  by  the  term,  the  regents,  is 
intended  throughout  this  deed  the  governing  body  of  the  university, 
however  known  or  constituted)  the  inventory  then  newly  taken, 
showing  also  a  comparison  thereof  with  the  next  preceding,  and  an 
account  of  the  income  of  the  estate  and  of  their  transactions  during 
the  year  last  passed;  and  a  duplicate  thereof  they  shall  file  with  the 
secretary  of  state  of  Wisconsin. 

The  trustees  may  employ  a  secretary — who  may  be  also  a  trustee 
— and  pay  him  an  annual  salary,  which  shall  never  be  increased  to 
more  than  five  thousand  dollars  unless  a  greater  sum  be  allowed  by 
act  of  the  legislature  and  paid  by  the  state.  They  shall  require  of 
him  a  good  and  sufficient  bond — to  be  yearly  renewed,  or  so  often 
as  entire  security  may  require — for  the  faithful  discharge  of  his 
duties  and,  as  lawfully  required,  the  payment  over  of  all  money  and 
delivery  of  all  property,  securities,  books,  papers  or  whatsoever 
things  of  the  estate  that  may  come  to  his  hands  at  any  time  or  by 
any  means. 

They  may  appoint  a  treasurer,  or  may  designate  some  respon- 
sible bank  to  act  as  treasurer,  requiring  such  bond  as  they  think  fit; 
but  no  salary  or  compensation  shall  be  paid  a  treasurer  unless  the 
legislature  shall  by  act  allow  and  fix  it. 

They  may  employ  attorneys  or  counsel  when  demanded  by  the 
interests  of  the  estate;  all  needful  clerical  assistance  in  their  office; 
agents  and  servitors  for  the  care  of  real  estate  or  other  property: 
but  except  for  the  construction  of  buildings,  no  expenditure  for  other 
personal  service  ought  to  be  made. 

The  trustees  themselves  shall  receive  such  salary  only  as  shall 
be  allowed  by  act  of  the  legislature;  and  it  may  be  expected  that,  in 
view  of  the  ends  to  which  the  estate  is  devoted,  there  will  ever  be 
trustees  whose  requirements  will  at  least  be  no  more  than  the  mini- 
mum of  reasonable  compensation  for  services  bestowed. 

The  trustees  may  provide  an  office  for  the  transaction  of  their 
business  and  the  safe  keeping  of  the  records  and  papers  of  the  estate, 
either  by  renting  apartments  or  the  construction  of  a  fire  proof 
building  therefor,  or  of  some  part  of  a  building  bought  or  built  for 
investment,  or  of  the  theatre,  if  built  as  hereinafter  provided. 

All  of  the  expenses  of  the  trustees,  all  expenses  of  the  manage- 
ment of  the  estate  herein  provided  for,  and  all  in  any  manner  prop- 
erly incurred  in  the  administration  of  the  estate,  shall  be  paid  from 
gains  and  charged  to  the  annual  income  account. 

This  deed,  the  books  of  record  and  of  account,  and  all  papers 
and  documents  touching  the  history  of  the  estate,  shall  never  be  pur- 
posely destroyed,  but  all  shall  be  carefully  preserved  so  long  as  the 
chances  of  time  may  allow. 

[44] 


Second.  They  shall  conduct,  manage,  invest  and  re-invest  the 
properties  and  moneys  of  the  estate  and  in  all  respects  administer  its 
affairs  so  as  to  obtain  the  largest  net  annual  income  to  be  derived 
with  due  regard  to  the  safety  of  the  principal,  and  to  that  end  shall 
have  power  to  make  whatever  investments  will  yield,  in  their  opin- 
ion, the  best  and  surest  gains,  whether  through  rents,  interest, 
dividends,  increment  of  value,  or  otherwise;  but  never  shall  they  in- 
vest more  than  one-tenth  of  the  entire  capital  of  the  estate  in  any 
single  enterprise,  corporation,  tract  of  real  estate,  including  build- 
ings thereon,  loan,  class  of  securities  by  the  same  debtor,  or  other 
form,  or  so  as  to  expose  a  greater  share  in  any  risk;  and  the  legis- 
lature may  forbid  any  particular  method  of  investment. 

One-half  of  the  net  annual  income  of  the  estate  shall  be  accumu- 
lated and  annually  added  to  the  principal  or  capital  of  the  estate, 
and  such  further  portion  of  such  net  income  as  the  trustees  shall  at 
any  time  think  fit,  until  the  entire  principal  or  capital  shall  amount 
to  twenty  million  dollars,  and  thereafter  one-quarter  of  such  net  in- 
come shall  be  so  accumulated  and  added  to  capital  until  such  capital 
shall  amount  to  thirty  million  dollars,  at  which  sum  accumulation 
of  capital  shall  cease,  unless  the  legislature  shall  authorize  its  fur- 
ther increase. 

But  a  surplus  of  income  may  be  carried,  out  of  the  annual  in- 
come available  for  expenditure,  in  order  to  assure  against  a  failure 
to  maintain  at  any  time  the  scale  of  annual  expenditure  established 
for  the  benefit  of  the  university  as  hereinafter  provided  for. 

In  case  the  principal,  or  capital,  of  the  estate  shall  at  any  time, 
or  at  divers  times,  after  the  attainment  of  the  sum  or  sums  above 
respectively  limited,  be  reduced  by  losses,  or  by  expenditures  auth- 
orized hereinafter  to  be  made  therefrom,  then,  and  as  often  as  shall 
be  necessary,  accumulation  shall  be  resumed  of  the  one-half  or  one- 
quarter  of  the  net  annual  income,  as  above  respectively  directed,  and 
maintained  until  the  limit  of  accumulation  be  again  attained,  as 
above  provided. 

In  the  valuation  of  the  estate  with  reference  to  such  limits,  no 
property  shall  be  reckoned  above  cost,  nor  any  securities  above  the 
par  value  thereof. 

The  trustees  shall,  as  an  ordinary  item  of  expense  of  the  estate, 
to  be  paid  out  of  the  gross  income — small,  unless  accident  befall — 
keep  forever  in  decent  order  the  monument,  marking  stones  and 
ground  of  the  Vilas  burial  lot  in  the  Forest  Hill  cemetery  near  the 
city  of  Madison  where  lie  the  remains  of  said  William  P.  Vilas,  his 
father,  and  their  families,  and  others  of  kindred  and,  in  case  of  in- 
jury or  destruction,  shall  restore  the  same  to  as  good  condition  as 
the  same  were  in  at  the  time  of  the  death  of  said  William  P.  Vilas. 

Third.     If,  when  this  deed  shall  be  delivered,  no  such  theatre  as 

[45] 


is  mentioned  in  this  article  shall  have  been  provided  for  the  univer- 
sity, and  the  total  valuation  of  the  estate  hereby  conveyed  shall  not 
then  be  thirteen  hundred  thousand  dollars,  at  least,  all  the  net  an- 
nual income  shall  be  accumulated  and  added  to  the  capital  until  it 
shall  have  fully  attained  to  said  sum,  and  as  much  more  as  the  trus- 
tees shall  think  requisite  for  the  due  execution  of  this  article.  They 
shall  then,  or  without  awaiting  accumulation  if  the  capital  be  al- 
ready thirteen  hundred  thousand  dollars,  set  apart  at  least  two  hun- 
dred and  fifty  thousand  dollars  of  such  capital,  and  so  much  more 
as  they  shall  think  required — provided  that  the  capital  of  the  estate 
shall  not  be  thereby  diminished  to  less  than  one  million  dollars — to 
be  applied,  together  with  further  accruing  income,  as  necessary,  so 
soon  as  the  regents  shall  provide  a  suitable  site  therefor,  acceptable 
to  the  trustees,  to  the  construction  of  a  theatre,  or  commodious 
and  fitting  structure  for  the  assemblage  of  the  university  body  and 
the  public  when  desired,  with  all  convenient  and  useful  appointments 
and  offices  in  connection  therewith,  suitable  for  all  university  uses 
desired,  including  musical  and  dramatic  exhibition,  and  whatever 
other  university  purposes  may  be  subserved. 

The  plans  for  such  theatre  shall  be  provided  by  the  regents  and 
approved  by  the  trustees,  and  the  regents  shall  construct  the  same, 
the  trustees  paying  over  the  moneys  required  therefor  in  convenient 
installments  from  time  to  time.  And  in  like  manner  the  theatre 
shall  be  well  and  adequately  equipped  for  its  intended  uses. 

Such  structure  shall  be  of  size  and  architectural  character  to 
cost  at  least  two  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  dollars,  and  the  trus- 
tees may,  in  their  discretion,  employ  for  it,  including  its  equipment, 
not  more  than  five  hundred  thousand  dollars,  first  having  accumu- 
lated the  requisite  funds,  if  such  accumulation  shall  be  necessary. 
It  is  designed,  and  the  trustees  are  enjoined,  in  the  exercise  of  their 
wise  discretion,  to  provide  an  adequate,  dignified  and  enduring  struc- 
ture, all  conditions  at  the  time  when  they  shall  act  being  justly  con- 
sidered. Should  a  suitable  theatre  be  otherwise  provided  for  the 
university  before  the  trustees  shall  be  able  to  execute  this  article, 
the  trustees  shall  add  the  moneys  especially  provided  therefor,  if 
any,  to  the  capital  of  the  estate;  and  if  at  any  time  thereafter,  occa- 
sion arise  for  such  a  theatre,  the  money  necessary,  within  the  limits 
above  defined,  shall  be  provided  by  the  trustees  from  the  capital 
above  one  million  dollars,  or  by  like  accumulation  of  income  therefor. 

And  wherever  a  theatre  shall  be  constructed  under  this  article 
there  shall  be  placed  upon  its  front  over  the  principal  entrance  a 
tablet  of  stone  or  metal,  of  appropriate  size  and  design,  inscribed 
"The  Vilas  Theatre,"  and  within  the  principal  entrance  or  hall  there- 
of another  such  suitable  tablet  inscribed  "In  Memory  of  Henry  Vilas, 
A.  B.  1894.  Born  May  28th,  1872,  Died  July  2nd,  1899." 

[46] 


Both  tablets  shall  be  maintained  in  good  condition  so  long  as 
such  theatre  shall  stand.  The  trustees  shall  provide  for  its  adequate 
insurance  out  of  the  income  of  the  estate  if  the  regents  do  not;  and 
in  the  event  of  its  destruction  shall  provide  anew  for  its  reconstruc- 
tion from  the  insurance  moneys  realized,  with  aid,  if  necessary,  from 
the  estate  in  like  manner. 

Fourth.  Subject  to  the  foregoing  provisions  the  trustees  may 
set  apart  one-half  the  net  annual  income  of  the  estate,  until  its  tocal 
invested  capital  shall  be  twenty  million  dollars,  and  thereafter,  so 
long  as  that  total  shall  be  maintained,  three-fourths  of  said  net  in- 
come, and,  after  the  total  invested  capital  shall  have  become  thirty 
million  dollars,  then,  so  long  as  it  shall  be  maintained  at  that 
amount,  all  the  net  income,  for  expenditure  for  the  ends  and  objects 
next  hereinafter  set  forth;  but  no  establishment  of  any  such  fixed  an- 
nual expenditure  ought  to  be  provided  until  it  be  prudently  fore- 
seen that  it  can  be  thenceforward  continued  without  interruption. 
And  no  more  than  the  above  limited  shares  of  the  net  annual  income 
shall  be  at  any  time  expended  by  the  trustees  for  any  object  in  this 
article  provided  for;  and  in  case,  after  the  establishment  of  scholar- 
ships, fellowships,  professorships,  and  other  like  endowments,  the 
above  limited  provision  of  the  net  annual  income  shall  at  any  time 
fail  in  sufficiency  therefor  for  a  time,  preference,  until  the  capital 
and  income  be  regained,  shall  be  given  in  expenditure  to  the  classes 
of  endowments  in  the  order  hereinafter  provided  for  their  establish- 
ment, and  in  the  several  classes  in  the  order  of  their  actual  estab- 
lishment. To  guard  against  such  failure,  the  trustees  may,  in  their 
discretion,  always  maintain  in  hand  a  surplus  of  such  net  income  as 
is  so  available  for  expenditure  under  the  provisions  of  this  deed  in 
order  to  supplement  at  needful  times  annual  receipts  and  supply  de 
ficiencies  unexpectedly  happening  therein;  but  this  shall  not  auth- 
orize any  withholding  from  the  increase  of  the  capital  of  any  part 
of  the  one-half  of  the  income  annually  until  it  shall  reach  twenty 
million  dollars,  as  aforesaid,  nor  of  any  part  of  the  one-quarter  of 
the  net  annual  income  thereafter  until  the  capital  shall  reach  thirty 
million  dollars,  as  before  provided. 

The  trustees  may,  from  time  to  time,  in  their  discretion,  proffer 
in  writing  to  the  regents  provision  for  the  maintenance  of  the 
scholarships,  fellowships,  professorships,  with  their  respective  auxil- 
liary  allowances  as  hereinafter  provided,  and  other  like  endowments 
hereinafter  authorized,  in  the  order  hereinafter  mentioned;  one  or 
more  at  a  time,  as  may  be  prudently  done;  and,  upon  advice  of  the 
appointment  of  incumbents  therefor  respectively,  shall  pay  to  such 
incumbents,  upon  the  certificate  or  warrant  of  the  regents  or  their 
proper  officer,  showing  the  right  thereto,  the  amount  of  annual  allow- 
ance provided  for  each  such  incumbent  respectively  in  convenient 

[47] 


periodical  installments  as  required  by  the  regents  in  each  case;  or 
otherwise  disburse  such  annual  or  special  provision  according  to  the 
method  fixed  by  the  regents  for  its  application  to  the  purposes  to 
which  assigned;  always  preferring,  when  conveniently  practicable, 
direct  payment  by  the  trustees  to  the  respective  incumbents  entitled 
thereto  in  suitable  installments. 

The  right  of  appointment,  subject  to  the  preferences  therefor 
hereinafter  provided,  and  the  right  of  removal,  shall  belong  entirely 
to  the  regents,  without  interference  by  the  trustees,  direct  or  in- 
direct. 

All  such  establishments  shall  be  distinguished  from  other  uni- 
versity positions  by  the  name  Vilas  prefixed,  as  the  Vilas  scholarship, 
fellowship,  professorship,  or  the  like,  with  addition  of  the  college, 
or  of  the  school,  &c.,  in  the  University  of  Wisconsin,  correctly  desig- 
nating the  same  when  the  same  shall  be  attached  to  any  college, 
school  or  department,  or  otherwise  as  the  case  may  require.  In  the 
establishment  of  such  endowments,  it  is  to  be  expected  that  the  trus- 
tees, though  possessed  of  the  power  of  an  owner  and  giver,  will  con- 
sult with,  and  unless  for  reasons  not  to  be  foreseen  now,  will  pur- 
sue the  advice  of  the  regents,  as  to  their  character,  objects,  assign- 
ment to  colleges,  schools,  &c.,  or  their  creation  independently  of 
either,  entire  harmony  and  thorough  co-operation  being  essential  to 
good  results.  It  is  for  the  trustees  especially  to  determine  the  suffi- 
ciency of  the  permanent  income  to  warrant  establishment,  and  see 
to  its  application;  and  that  the  order  and  purposes  of  this  deed  are 
observed  in  the  endowments. 

A.  Provision  shall  first  be  made  for  ten  undergraduate  scholar- 
ships each  incumbent  whereof  shall  receive  four  hundred  dollars 
per  year,  and  for  ten  fellowships  each  incumbent  whereof  shall  re- 
ceive six  hundred  dollars  per  year.  In  appointment  to  such  scholar- 
ships and  fellowships  the  regents  shall  prefer  among  worthy  and 
qualified  candidates  those  of  lineal  or  collateral  kindred  to  said  Will- 
iam F.  Vilas,  and  among  such  kindred  those  of  his  surname. 

The  regents  may  prescribe  standards  of  qualification  for  such 
scholars  and  fellows,  which  shall  be  alike  for  all  applicants  for  either 
respectively;  they  may  fix  the  duration  of  enjoyment  by  any  one  per- 
son; they  may  require  from  any  fellow  such  instructional  service  as 
they  shall  think  reasonable;  and  may  impose  any  other  appropriate 
conditions  upon  the  enjoyment  of  such  scholarships  or  fellowships 
respectively,  of  uniform  character;  it  being  the  purpose  that  such 
scholarships  and  fellowships  shall  be  in  essential  similar  to  like  posi- 
tions at  the  present  time  in  American  universities. 

The  regents  may  at  any  time  when  they  shall  desire  to  give 
leave  to  any  fellow  for  travel  and  study  in  other  states  or  foreign 
countries  award  to  one  person  the  salary  of  two  fellowships,  for  a 

[48] 


limited  period;  or — what  is  much  preferable  if  the  income  available 
will  warrant — the  trustees  may  on  their  request  assign  for  a  limited 
period  a  salary  not  to  exceed  fifteen  hundred  dollars  per  year  to  one 
or  more,  not  exceeding  five,  of  such  fellowships,  to  constitute  travel- 
ing fellowships,  and  enable  the  incumbent  under  direction  of  the  re- 
gents to  pursue  studies  abroad  as  they  shall  authorize;  such  pro- 
vision being  left  to  the  trustees  to  make  whenever  and  for  such 
periods  as  the  regents  shall  deem  desirable  in  aid  of  specially  prom- 
ising or  specially  deserving  fellows. 

B.  In  their  discretion,  the  trustees  may  employ  out  of  the  avail- 
able net  income — not  to  exceed  one-tenth  of  one  percentum  of  the 
capital  of  the  estate,  as  shown  by  the  last  preceding  inventory,  in 
amount  in  any  one  year — such  sum  as  may  seem  desirable  for  the 
encouragement  of  merit  and  talent,  or  to  promote  appreciation  of 
and  taste  for,  the  art  of  music,  in  connection  with  university  instruc- 
tion therein.    This  may  be  by  the  proffer  of  prizes,  by  assistance  of 
meritorious  and   promising  students  to  pursue  study   at  home  or 
abroad,  by  contribution  to  musical  festivals  or  exhibitions,  or  in  such 
form  "whatever  as  the  trustees  shall  deem  most  serviceable.    No  ob- 
ligation is  imposed  on  the  trustees,  the  purpose  being  that  expendi- 
ture shall  only  be  made  in  exceptional  instances,  not  to  provide  in- 
struction.    The  promotion  of  popular  taste  by  the  aid  of  periodical 
musical  festivals  is  commended  to  their  consideration. 

C.  Next  in  order,  but  first  in  importance  among  the  purposes 
of  this  trust,  provision  shall  be  made  for  the  maintenance  and  suit- 
able equipment,  one  after  another  as  means  shall  afford  until  ten 
such  be  established,  of  professorships  of  a  special  class  to  promote 
the  advancement  of  knowledge. 

Each  professor  of  this  class  shall  receive  not  less  than  five  thou- 
sand dollars,  nor  more  than  ten  thousand  dollars,  in  yearly  salary,  as 
the  trustees  shall  provide;  and  they  may  fix  the  salary  of  each  irre- 
spectively of  the  others,  and  may,  when  less  than  the  maximum  shall 
have  been  originally  fixed — as  will  no  doubt  be  the  rule — increase  the 
salary  of  any  such  professor,  on  the  recommendation  of  the  regents, 
at  any  time,  or  from  time  to  time,  until  said  limit  shall  be  reached; 
but  no  salary,  when  fixed  at  any  sum  originally  or  by  increase,  shall 
be  reduced  while  the  same  person  holds  the  professorship,  except 
upon  his  retirement.  In  case  any  such  professor  shall  retire  with 
consent  of,  or  be  retired  by  the  regents,  after  fifteen  years'  service  in 
his  professorship,  the  trustees  shall  pay  him,  during  the  residue  of 
his  natural  life,  two  thousand  five  hundred  dollars  per  year  in  equal 
monthly  installments  in  advance.  Upon  retirement  of  any  such  pro- 
fessor another  may  be  appointed  in  his  stead,  so  that  ten  active  pro- 
fessors of  this  class  be  in  service  continually,  after  the  full  number 
shall  have  been  established,  or  so  many  less  as  shall  then  have  been. 

[49] 


At  the  time  of  establishing  each  one  of  such  professorships  the 
trustees  shall  also  provide,  in  addition  to  the  professor's  salary,  a 
further  annual  sum  of  allowance,  to  be  expended  under  his  direction, 
to  furnish  proper  auxiliaries  to  enable  his  due  accomplishment  of 
the  ends  proposed  to  him,  which  shall  include  personal  assistants, 
such  as  clerks,  stenographers,  computers,  mechanicians,  laboratory 
employes,  and  whatever  others,  when  requisite,  and  supplies  of  ap- 
propriate materials,  implements,  books,  apparatus,  specimens,  and 
the  like.  In  fixing  such  sum  the  trustees  will  look  to  the  advice  of 
the  regents  and  consider  the  objects  or  nature  of  the  line  of  in- 
vestigation which  such  professor  is  assigned  to  pursue;  but  he  ought 
to  be  so  liberally  supplied,  within  reasonable  bounds,  that  no  hind- 
rance or  interruption  of  his  work  will  become  necessary,  and  the 
increase  of  knowledge  may  have  the  best  favoring  hope  possible  in 
the  circumstances.  And  the  trustees  may  increase,  or  may  diminish 
the  sum  of  allowance  so  provided,  whenever  and  as  often  as  it  is 
deemed  best,  upon  the  request  of  the  regents;  or  may,  on  like  request, 
make  special  and  limited  appropriation  from  the  available  net  in- 
come to  aid  any  particular  research  or  investigation,  or  to  provide 
for  the  cost  of  any  expedition  or  journey  by  any  such  professor,  or 
any  assistant,  with  all  needful  auxiliaries  of  persons  and  things. 

Appointments  may,  if  the  regents  so  desire,  be  made  provision 
ally  on  probation  for  one,  two  or  three  years,  or  for  successive  years 
or  periods  not  more  than  five  years  in  all  in  probation,  but  after 
five  years'  continuous  service,  if  satisfactory,  any  such  professor 
shall  have  final  appointment,  or  otherwise  be  dismissed  from  such 
professorship.  And  whenever  a  final  appointment  shall  be  given, 
whether  after  five  years',  or  less,  probationary  service,  or  with  none, 
the  professor  so  appointed  shall  not  thereafter  be  removed,  or  be  de- 
prived of  his  right  to  pay  after  retirement  hereinbefore  given,  except 
for  good  and  sufficient  cause  duly  proven  at  a  fair  hearing  by  the 
regents,  or  with  the  aid  of  a  committee  specially  raised  therefor, 
after  due  notice  and  opportunity  to  defend. 

These  professorships  are  designed  to  promote  advancement  of 
knowledge  rather  than  to  give  instruction,  and  it  shall  forever  be  a 
limitation  on  the  power  to  require  service  of  any  incumbent  thereof 
that  not  more  than  three  hours  in  one  week,  nor  more  than  one  hour 
in  one  day,  shall  be  exacted  of  him  for  teaching,  lecturing  or  other 
instruction  to  students,  or  otherwise,  against  either  his  objection  or 
that  of  the  trustees;  any  such  service  with  assent  of  both  being  open. 
But  the  regents  may  determine  the  reasonable  requirement  of  time 
to  be  employed  in  investigation,  prescribe  the  subjects  thereof,  and 
the  general  line  or  course  to  be  pursued ;  and  the  professorships  shall 
be  respectively  designated,  in  summary  phrase,  accordingly;  and 
they  may  be  assigned  to  any  college,  school  or  department  in  the 

[50] 


university,  or  stand  independently,  as  the  regents  shall  determine. 
Any  branch  of  human  learning  may  be  selected  as  the  subject  of  spe- 
cial study;  but  when  the  subject  and  general  course  of  inquiry  of 
any  such  professorship  shall  have  been  once  determined  and  entered 
upon,  they  shall  not  be  changed  during  the  active  service  of  the  exist- 
ing incumbent  without  his  assent.  Upon  the  termination  of  the 
active  service  of  any  professor  by  retirement,  or  otherwise,  the  re- 
gents, when  appointing  a  successor  may  prescribe  any  subjects  or 
line  of  investigation  anew;  and  the  trustees  may  fix  upon  any  sum 
of  annual  allowance,  or  a  different  salary  within  the  prescribed 
limits;  so  that  whatever  shall  then  appear  most  desirable  shall  be 
available  as  upon  an  original  establishment. 

The  qualifications  for  such  professorships  being  left  to  the  wis- 
dom of  the  regents,  with  opportunity  for  probationary  service  before 
a  final  appointment,  and  the  power  of  retirement  remaining  in  the 
regents,  it  is  right  and  expedient  to  secure  to  incumbents  with  cer- 
tainty beyond  the  risk  of  interruption  the  means  of  life  in  assured 
comfort,  fixing  upon  their  character  and  liberty  the  hope  of  beneficial 
achievement  in  the  increase  of  knowledge,  with  no  greater  exaction  of 
service  in  imparting  it  to  others  than  may  serve  to  aid,  rather  than 
retard,  the  clarification  and  definition  of  results  attained.  Yet  al- 
though so  untrammelled  by  obligation  to  teach — which  in  proper  in- 
stances the  regents  may  not  require  at  all,  or  only  at  convenient 
periods — and  free  to  pursue  his  fixed  lines  of  research  in  his  own 
way,  still  it  may  be  expected  that,  in  fact,  each  such  professor  will 
gather  about  him  as  fellow  workers  and  assistants,  so  far  as  may 
be,  students  who  will  both  gain  learning,  and  inspiration  to  promote 
it,  from  their  participation  in  his  pursuits  and  the  opportunities  of 
such  association,  which  he  will  both  desire  and  best  know  how  to 
inculcate  in  them. 

Due  provision  must  be  made  for  publication  of  the  results  of  in- 
vestigation by  all  such  professors,  either  by  the  regents  or  the  state; 
or,  if  found  necessary  and  desirable,  the  trustees  may  provide  there- 
for from  the  available  net  annual  income. 

Suitable  quarters  or  buildings  for  the  work  of  such  professors 
should  be  furnished  by  the  regents;  but,  in  necessity,  the  trustees 
possess  needful  authority,  under  a  later  article  of  this  deed. 

D.  The  ten  professorships  aforesaid  having  been  established 
and  supplied,  the  trustees  shall  next  provide  for  fifty  more  under- 
graduate scholarships,  with  a  salary  of  from  three  to  four  hundred 
dollars  each,  as  they  shall  deem  best,  and  then  for  fifty  more  fellow- 
ships with  a  salary  of  from  five  hundred  to  six  hundred  dollars 
each,  to  which  graduates  of  the  University  of  Wisconsin  shall  be 
appointed;  such  scholarships  and  fellowships  to  be  of  like  character 
with  those  first  hereinbefore  provided  for;  or,  they  may,  in  their 

[51] 


discretion,  provide  for  both  fellowships  and  scholarships,  but  at  least 
as  many  of  the  latter  as  of  fellowships. 

For  at  least  one-fifth  of  these  scholarships  and  fellowships  the 
regents  shall  prefer  in  appointment  among  worthy  and  qualified 
candidates  those  of  negro  blood,  if  such  present  themselves.  Other- 
wise than  as  aforesaid,  they  shall  be  governed  by  the  regents  in  like 
manner  as  those  first  above  provided  for. 

E.  After  sufficient  provision  for  the  continued  maintenance  of 
the  foregoing,  the  trustees  may  provide  from  time  to  time,  as  in- 
crease of  available  net  income  shall  warrant,  for  such  professorships 
— either  in  addition  to  the  ten  aforesaid  for  advancement  of  knowl- 
edge, or  simply  for  instructional  service — such  associate  or  assistant 
professorships,  such  instructorships,  additional  scholarships  or  fel- 
lowships, or  such  other  chairs  for  instruction  or  for  research  as  to 
them  and  the  regents  shall  seem  most  to  promote  knowledge  and 
education  and  benefit  the  university. 

But  though  provision  for  chairs  of  instruction  is  left  discretion- 
ary, it  ought  ever  to  be  remembered  that,  aside  from  scholarships 
and  fellowships  to  aid  deserving  students,  the  university  may  be 
best  raised  to  the  highest  excellence  as  a  seat  of  learning  and  edu- 
cation, through  extraneous  aid,  by  abundant  support  in  pushing  the 
confines  of  knowledge;  the  especial  object  of  this  trust.  The  state 
may  be  confidently  expected  to  furnish  sufficient  instruction  to  its 
youth,  and  other  sources  of  contribution  and  revenue  will  supply  any 
lack. 

But  if,  and  after,  any  chair  of  instruction  shall  have  been  by 
them  created  and  an  incumbent  installed,  the  trustees  shall  never 
withdraw,  without  the  consent  of  the  regents,  the  provision  made 
therefor  during  the  tenancy  of  such  incumbent,  save  only  if  the  net 
annual  income  available  to  expenditure  hereunder  shall  fail  to  supply 
all  the  like  appointed  charges  thereon,  and  then  only  to  the  extent 
actually  necessary  and  in  the  order  required  by  the  rule  of  prefer- 
ance  in  such  case  hereinbefore  prescribed.  And,  subject  only  to  the 
limitations  in  this  deed  contained,  the  government  of  all  appointees 
shall  remain  wholly  with  the  regents,  with  all  the  powers  given  by 
law,  that  their  relations  and  services  may  be  most  harmoniously 
and  effectively  co-ordinated  with  the  other  agencies  under  the  regents 
to  the  highest  benefit  of  the  university  and  its  beneficiaries. 

Fifth.  At  any  time  after  the  estate  shall  have  come  to  exceed 
five  million  dollars  of  capital,  the  trustees  may,  in  their  discretion, 
upon  request  of  the  regents,  suspend  the  addition  of  the  one-half  net 
income  to  the  capital,  and  for  a  time  accumulate  all  the  available  in- 
come— not  appropriated  to  endowments — in  a  special  fund  for  the 
construction  of  any  building  desired  for  the  university,  and  when  a 
sufficient  sum  shall  have  been  so  gained,  and  the  regents  shall  have 

[52] 


provided  a  site  and  plans  therefor  to  the  satisfaction  of  the  trustees, 
may  apply  such  special  fund  to  the  construction  of  such  building. 

Upon  the  front  of  every  such  building,  over  the  principal  en- 
trance thereto,  shall  be  placed  an  appropriate  stone  or  metal  tablet 
suitably  inscribed  to  mark  it  as  a  structure  built  by  the  estate  here- 
by created,  and  such  tablet  shall  be  preserved  in  good  condition,  by 
renewal  when  needful,  so  long  as  such  building  shall  stand. 

This  power  may  be  exercised  so  often  as  the  regents  and  trus- 
tees shall,  in  their  wisdom,  concur  in  determining  desirable;  but,  if 
entered  upon,  so  soon  as  any  such  special  fund  shall  have  been  ac- 
cumulated to  the  sum  pre-determined  to  be  necessary,  then  the  one- 
half  of  the  net  income  (or  one-fourth  after  the  invested  capital  be 
twenty  million  dollars)  shall  again  be  applied  to  the  increase  of  the 
capital  as  hereinbefore  provided.  The  primary  object  of  this  pro- 
vision is  to  afford  the  means,  in  need,  for  such  buildings  as  investi- 
gation or  the  progress  of  knowledge  may  peculiarly  require.  All 
such  buildings,  indeed,  as  all  others  desirable  to  the  university,  may 
be  expected  from  the  enlightened  care  of  the  state.  Yet  an  unre- 
strained discretion  to  so  build  any  is  left  to  the  trustees,  lest  condi- 
tions arise  when  the  widest  exercise  of  such  authority  may  become 
of  sufficient  importance  to  the  needs  of  the  university. 

Sixth.  This  gift  and  conveyance  are  made  upon  the  condition 
that  all  the  several  requirements  and  limitations  respecting  its  ac- 
cumulation, administration  and  use,  shall  be  forever  faithfully  ob- 
served, and  to  ensure  that  end  the  right  of  visitation  and  suit  is  giv- 
en in  the  next  succeeding  article. 

But  it  is  further  explicitly  made  an  unalterable  condition  of  the 
right  of  the  trustees  to  hold  the  estate  hereby  granted  and  any  and 
all  property  which  they  may  ever  receive  or  have  under  this  deed, 
that  if  the  provisions  in  this  deed  contained  requiring  the  accumula- 
tion of  the  capital  thereof  by  the  addition  to  it  of  one-half  of  the  an- 
nual income  until  the  invested  capital  be  twenty  million  dollars,  and 
of  one-quarter  of  such  income  thereafter  until  such  capital  be  thirty 
million  dollars,  or  of  the  before  prescribed  share  of  such  income  to 
restore  the  capital  in  case  of  any  loss  thereof  at  any  time  or  at 
divers  times,  shall  not  be  faithfully  executed;  or  if  expenditure  of 
the  same,  or  of  the  income,  or  of  any  part  of  either,  shall  be  at  any 
time  made  for  other  and  different  objects  than  those  hereinbefore 
prescribed;  or  if  the  prescribed  order  of  preference  of  such  objects 
shall  be  violated;  then  all  the  estate  and  properties  of  every  kind 
held  by  such  trustees  at  the  time,  and  all  resulting  therefrom,  and 
the  complete  and  perfect  ownership  thereof  and  title  thereto,  shall 
at  once  vest  in  the  then  existing  heir  or  heirs  of  said  William  P. 
Vilas  in  however  remote  degree;  and  any  such  heir  or  heirs  may  re- 
cover the  same  without  entry  for  condition  broken,  or  any  precedent 

[53] 


step  or  act  of  any  kind  by  him  or  them,  and  any  such  heir  may  so 
separately  recover  his  share  thereof,  in  any  action  or  actions,  suit 
or  suits,  at  law  or  in  equity,  and  no  limitation  of  time  shall  defeat 
such  action  less  than  twenty  years  after  the  full  personal  discovery 
and  knowledge  by  such  heir  or  heirs  entitled  thereto  of  the  default 
or  breach  of  condition  which  shall  so  vest  such  estate  or  properties, 
or  the  share  thereof  to  which  any  such  heir  may  be  entitled. 

Seventh.  Full  and  complete  power  of  visitation  is  given  to  the 
governor  of  Wisconsin;  to  the  attorney-general  of  Wisconsin;  to  the 
legislature  of  Wisconsin,  or  any  committee  appointed  by  it  therefor; 
to  the  regents,  or  any  committee  appointed  by  them  therefor;  to  each 
and  every  scholar,  fellow,  professor,  or  other  incumbent  of  any  posi- 
tion which  may  be  established  by  virtue  hereof  as  aforesaid;  and  to 
any  person  who  may  at  any  time  be  heir,  to  any  extent,  or  in  any 
degree  of  lineal  or  collateral  relationship,  of  the  said  William  F. 
Vilas;  and  any  of  said  official  bodies,  officials  or  persons  in  this  ar- 
ticle named,  shall  possess  full  power  of  examination,  at  all  reason- 
able times,  of  all  the  properties,  affairs  and  accounts  of  the  trustees 
and  the  trust  estate,  and  may  at  any  time  institute  and  prosecute  to 
effect  any  necessary  or  proper  action  at  law  or  suit  in  equity  or  other 
fit  remedy  of  any  kind,  to  invoke  the  powers  of  any  court  or  tribunal 
having  jurisdiction  to  correct  and  redress  any  error  or  failure  in  ad- 
ministration of  this  trust,  or  any  departure  from  the  provisions  of 
this  deed  for  its  management  or  the  use  of  its  income;  all  the  costs 
of  which,  although  the  proceeding  fail  of  affirmative  result,  shall  be 
borne  by  the  estate  if  the  court  shall  find  there  were  reasonable 
grounds  to  warrant  its  institution;  and  otherwise,  by  the  parties  or 
the  trustees  personally,  as  the  court  shall  adjudge. 

But  this  provision  shall  in  no  wise  diminish,  qualify  or  affect, 
the  condition  and  limitation  in  the  next  preceding  article  providing 
for  the  devolution  of  the  estate  and  its  properties  to  the  heirs  of  the 
said  William  F.  Vilas  in  case  of  violation  of  any  of  the  requirements 
therein  mentioned  as  essential  to  the  continuance  of  the  trust. 

Eighth.  of  ; of ; of  ; 

of ;  and  of having  consented  thereunto, 

are  hereby  made  the  first  trustees,  to  whom,  and  to  their  successors, 
this  conveyance  is  made,  and  are  invested  with  all  the  properties 
hereinbefore  described  or  mentioned  and  all  the  powers  herein  given 
as  aforesaid. 

By  the  term  "the  trustees"  wherever  used  in  this  deed  is  in- 
tended the  said  persons  and  their  successors  in  this  trust,  for  the 
time  being  forever,  as  herein  provided  for.  The  number  of  such 
trustees  shall  never  be  less  than  five.  When  a  vacancy  shall  occur 
in  such  number,  the  trustees  remaining  shall  as  quickly  as  possible 
convene  and  choose  a  successor  and  procure  his  acceptance  and  en- 

[54] 


try  on  the  duties  of  his  office.  If  within  sixty  days  from  its  happen- 
ing any  such  vacancy  shall  not  be  so  filled,  the  regents,  the  president 
of  the  university,  or  any  citizen  of  the  state,  may  apply  to  the  court 
having  jurisdiction  to  appoint  a  trustee  to  fill  the  same,  on  five  days' 
notice  to  the  remaining  trustees,  at  their  office. 

The  trustees  may  at  any  time,  by  recorded  vote,  increase  the 
number  of  trustees  to  seven,  and  elect  the  additional  trustees  so  pro- 
vided for;  and  thereafter  the  foregoing  provisions  shall  apply  to  such 
increased  number. 

No  bond  shall  be  required  of  any  trustee,  unless  the  legislature 
shall  by  law  require  it. 

It  is  recommended  as  good  policy  that  every  trustee  shall  be  a 
graduate  of  the  university;  that  at  least  one  be  a  judge  of  the  su- 
preme court  of  Wisconsin;  and,  when  time  arrives,  that  one  or  more 
be  chosen  from  among  the  first  ten  professors  of  the  class  of  in- 
vestigators to  be  provided  for  as  hereinbefore  set  forth.  But  no  lim- 
itation on  the  power  of  choice  is  hereby  in  any  wise  imposed;  inas- 
much as  it  is  impossible  safely  to  foresee  what  circumstances  may 
require  or  how  important  it  may  be  to  repose  choice  in  particular 
cases  on  character  and  ability  unaccompanied  by  the  special  quali- 
fications indicated. 

In  witness  whereof,  the  undersigned,  being  the  trustees  now  in 
execution  of  the  last  will  and  testament  of  William  P.  Vilas,  have, 
pursuant  to  the  obligations  on  them  imposed  and  the  authority  in 
them  vested  hereunto  set  their  names  and  affixed  their  seals,  re- 
spectively this day  of in  the  year  of  our  Lord, 


Trustees  as-  last  aforesaid. 

And  the  undersigned  trustees  of  the  estate  of  said  William  F. 
Vilas  further  respectfully  inform  your  honorable  body  that,  accord- 
ing to  the  instruction  and  power  given  to  us  in  his  last  will  and 
testament,  we  may  execute  and  deliver  the  deed  of  gift  and  convey- 
ance aforesaid  if,  and  only  upon  condition  that,  within  two  years 
from  the  receipt  of  this  communication,  your  honorable  body  shall 
enact  by  law,  (to  be  entitled  as  in  said  proposed  deed  is  for  con- 
venience suggested). 

(1)  That  the  legislature  of  Wisconsin  accepts  for  the  benefit  of 
the  University  of  Wisconsin  the  grant  proposed  to  be  made  by  the 
aforesaid  proposed  deed  of  conveyance  upon  the  terms  and  condi- 
tions therein  expressed,  authorizes  such  conveyance  to  be  made  ac- 
cordingly, and  declares  that  the  same  when  so  made  shall  be  valid 
and  binding  forever  upon  all  parties  thereto  and  all  persons  inter- 

[55] 


ested  therein  or  in  any  wise  affected  thereby,  and  that  the  terms, 
conditions,  and  provisions,  in  the  said  proposed  deed  of  conveyance 
contained  and  set  forth  shall  in  all  particulars  constitute  unalter- 
ably the  law  of  such  grant  and  forever  unalterably  govern  the  ad- 
ministration and  management  of  the  estate  and  properties  by  it  con- 
veyed and  all  which  may  in  any  manner  whatever  result  therefrom 
by  increment,  gains,  additional  gifts,  or  any  increase  thereof  what- 
ever; 

(2)  In  case  any  charges  imposed  by  the  last  will  and  testament 
of  said  William  F.  Vilas  upon  such  property  and  estate  remain  at  the 
time  of  such  conveyance  unpaid,  undischarged  or  unfulfilled,  that  all 
charges  by  such  last  will  and  testament  required  to  be  sustained  by 
such  property  shall  be  justly  and  in  good  faith  paid,  executed  an-i 
discharged  as  their  nature  may  require  in  accordance  with  the  true 
intent  of  said  last  will. 

(But  if  no  such  charges  remain  unpaid,  unexecuted  or  undis- 
charged, then  this  clause  may  be  omitted  from  the  communication 
to  the  legislature.) 

(3)  That  the  properties  of  the  trust  estate  so  created  shall,  in 
all  respects,  and  as  well  all  gains,  increment,  or  other  increase  there- 
of, be  exempt  from  all  taxation  in  any  form  so  long  as  the  same  shall 
continue  to  be  held  for  the  uses  and  purposes  of  the  University  of 
Wisconsin,  as  therein  provided;  and 

(4)  That  the  several  persons   hereinbelow  proposed   therefor 
(or  others  to  be  proposed  if  objection  be  found  to  these)  may  be 
named  in  said  deed  as  the  first  five  trustees  to  whom  the  said  grant 
may  be  made. 

And  they  also  pray  leave  of  your  honorable  body,  to  propose, 
pursuant  to  the  instruction  to  them  in  the  said  last  will  and  testa- 
ment, as  the  first  five  trustees.  ,  of ;  ,  of — ; 

,  of ;  ,  of ;  and ,  of  — ,  of  whom 

the  undersigned  (or  two,  or  one,  of  the  undersigned,  in  case  one  or 
more  of  my  trustees  decline  so  to  serve)  are  suggested  as  a  part  be- 
cause such  is  the  written  desire  of  the  said  testator,  and  they  are 
willing  so  to  act  with  the  approval  of  your  honorable  body. 

To  which  they  respectfully  add  that  they  stand  ready  to  com- 
plete the  discharge  of  their  trust  under  said  last  will  and  testament 
by  the  due  execution  and  delivery  of  the  proposed  deed  of  convej'- 
ance  so  soon  as  your  honorable  body  shall  authorize  the  same  by  the 
act  desired,  and  they  pray  your  early  consideration  thereof. 

Madison,  Wis.,  ,  190 — . 


Trustees. 
[56] 


Tenth.  It  is  my  desire  that  all  of  the  trustees  who  shall  be  then 
in  execution  of  the  trust  created  by  this  will,  shall  be  also  named  as 
trustees  in  the  deed  of  conveyance  so  set  forth  in  the  communication 
to  the  legislature  in  the  next  preceding  paragraph  of  this  will  con- 
tained; or  so  many  as  will  accept  that  trust;  in  order  that  the  trus 
tees  under  such  conveyance  may  possess  from  the  beginning  familiar 
knowledge  of  all  the  properties  transferred  and  thus  continue  their 
management  to  the  best  advantage.  In  preparing  such  communica- 
tion this  desire  will,  I  hope,  find  execution.  And  they  are  also  di- 
rected to  select  other  suitable  and  competent  persons  of  approved 
standing  and  character  to  complete  the  full  number  of  five  trustees 
proposed.  Should  it  happen,  however,  that  the  legislature  shall  be 
unwilling  to  assent  to  the  designation  of  any  persons  so  proposed  as 
trustees,  my  said  trustees  may,  by  subsequent  communication 
amendatory  of  the  first,  propose  others  until  they  nominate  five  satis- 
factory to  the  legislature. 

And,  if,  at  any  time  within  two  years  from  the  receipt  of  such 
communication  set  forth  in  the  ninth  paragraph  of  this  will,  the 
legislature  shall  enact  a  law  making  the  provisions  therein  which 
are  mentioned  in  the  aforesaid  communication  and  numbered  (1), 
(2),  (3)  and  (4),  (if  number  (2)  be  included  because  of  charges  re- 
maining on  the  estate)  without  material  qualification,  or  reserva- 
tion of  power  to  alter  the  same,  then  my  said  trustees  shall,  as  soon 
as  possible  after  the  approval  of  such  law,  duly  execute  such  deed  in 
such  manner  as  the  statutes  may  require,  deliver  the  same  and  make 
over  and  transfer  to  the  trustees  in  such  deed  named  the  physical 
possession  and  control  of  all  the  properties  of  my  estate,  and  also 
execute  any  other  papers,  or  do  whatever  other  thing,  necessary  or 
convenient  to  vest  in  said  trustees  full  and  perfect  ownership  and 
possession  thereof. 

And  thereupon  my  said  trustees  shall  stand  discharged  of  their 
trust  under  this  will. 

Eleventh.  In  the  foregoing  paragraphs  numbered  ninth  and 
tenth  of  this  will,  I  have  indicated  and  directed  the  final  disposition 
of  my  estate  entire,  in  the  manner  which  now  appears  to  me  both 
useful  and  entirely  in  consonance  with  law.  But  I  desire  to  ensure, 
if  possible,  beyond  the  risk  of  legal  cavil  or  technical  defect,  the 
proffer  to  the  legislature  of  all  of  my  estate  not  otherwise  disposed  of, 
as  proposed  in  the  ninth  paragraph,  in  the  belief  that  if  any  ques- 
tion otherwise  can  exist,  they  will  by  law  validate  the  proposed  gift 
and  assure  its  devotion  to  the  purposes  intended.  In  amendment  of 
the  first  part  of  the  ninth  paragraph,  therefore,  I  now  give  my  said 
trustees  power  and  authority,  in  their  discretion,  at  any  time  after 
the  decease  of  my  wife,  to  cause  to  be  laid  before  the  legislature  the 
communication,  signed  by  them,  in  that  paragraph  contained ;  in  that 

[57] 


case  setting  forth  with  special  care  the  charges  thereon,  which  I 
have  hereinbefore  made,  in  the  inventory  of  the  estate,  to  the  end 
that  they  may  be  thus  surely  provided  for;  by  which  means  early 
and  definite  disposition  may  be  had.  And  in  the  event  that  any 
question  be  raised  of  the  validity  of  this  my  will  in  respect  to  the 
disposition  made  in  the  said  ninth  and  tenth  paragraphs  aforesaid, 
or  in  respect  to  any  other  material  and  substantial  disposition  here- 
by made  of  any  part  of  my  estate  or  the  income  thereof,  I  absolutely 
direct  my  said  trustees  at  the  next  ensuing  session  of  the  legisla- 
ture to  so  lay  such  communication  before  that  body,  as  in  the  ninth 
paragraph  directed,  and  thereupon  to  dispose  of  my  estate  as  in  the 
tenth  paragraph  required;  in  the  event  of  the  acceptance  of  the  gift 
as  proposed  only,  however. 

Twelfth.  In  case  the  legislature  of  Wisconsin  shall  not,  within 
the  two  years  limited,  pass  the  act  provided  for,  so  as  to  authorize 
my  trustees  to  finally  dispose  of  all  my  estate  given  them  in  trust — 
a  contingency  which  I  cannot  anticipate  as  probable  because  the 
terms  of  the  gift  are  all  within  the  law  as  it  now  exists  if  my  estate 
shall  amount  to  the  sum  I  suppose — then  my  trustees  shall,  after 
having  discharged  all  the  gifts,  legacies  and  other  dispositions  here- 
inbefore provided  for,  divide  all  the  residue  of  my  estate  into  three 
equal  parts,  so  nearly  as  it  can  be  done  by  them;  for  which  purpose 
they  are  empowered  themselves  absolutely  to  fix  values  upon  each 
and  every  piece,  parcel  or  article  of  property,  real,  personal  and 
mixed,  belonging  to  the  estate  in  their  hands,  and  assign  any  and 
every  such  piece,  parcel  or  article  to  such  of  the  three  parts  so  to  be 
apportioned  by  them  as  they  shall  see  fit;  and  thereupon  they  shall 
make  over,  transfer,  grant  and  convey  one  of  such  three  parts  to  the 
children  of  my  daughter,  Mary  Esther  Vilas  Hanks,  who  shall  then 
be  surviving,  if  any;  and  likewise  transfer,  grant  and  convey  an- 
other of  such  three  parts  to  such  of  my  four  nieces,  daughters  of  my 
deceased  brother,  Levi  M.  Vilas,  and  my  nephew,  Charles  A.  Vilas, 
of  Milwaukee,  as  shall  then  be  surviving,  if  any  of  the  five,  nephew 
and  nieces,  shall  so  remain  in  life;  and  likewise  transfer,  grant  and 
convey,  the  other  and  last  of  said  three  parts,  and  also  either  or 
both  of  the  previously  mentioned  two  of  the  three  parts  if  there  be 
no  person  in  being  as  aforesaid  to  receive  them,  or  either  of  them, 
to  the  city  of  Madison,  in  trust,  to  employ  such  portion  thereof  as- 
the  common  council  of  said  city  shall  think  fit  to  construct  and  equip 
a  building  to  contain  a  library,  reading  rooms,  recreation  rooms, 
lecture  rooms,  baths,  and  other  convenient  appointments  of  a  club 
house  or  resort  for  the  use  and  enjoyment  of  the  mechanics,  artisans, 
laborers  and  other  citizens  of  Madison;  and  to  hold  the  residue  as 
an  endowment  fund,  to  be  invested  and  the  income  thereof  applied 
to  the  support  and  maintenance  of  such  establishment  and  its  equip- 

[58] 


ment  in  such  manner  as  the  common  council  may  provide.  It  is  my 
desire,  in  case  this  gift  shall  ever  become  operative,  that  there  shall 
be  provided  a  place  of  resort,  recreation  and  improvement,  for  the 
benefit,  especially  and  primarily — though  I  would  exclude  none — of 
the  citizens  of  Madison  who  obtain  their  livelihood  by  daily  labor  in 
whatever  occupation.  I  would  have  it  so  planned  and  conducted  that 
no  laboring  man  or  woman  but  should  feel  perfectly  at  home  in  it, 
not  as  the  beneficiary  of  an  unpleasing  discrimination;  to  the  end 
that  mental  and  moral  improvement,  pleasing  manners  in  social  in- 
tercourse and  all  rational  recreation  and  enjoyment  might  be  as  en- 
tirely within  the  reach  of  the  families  of  those  who  may  not  possess 
wealth  as  of  those  who  do,  so  far  as  these  may  be  attained  by  such 
an  establishment. 

In  order  to  this  end,  so  briefly  indicated,  this  contingent  gift  is 
made  absolutely  to  the  city  of  Madison  without  other  than  general 
indication  of  the  objects  proposed,  so  as  to  avoid  any  question  of  the 
legality  of  the  disposition.  And  the  same,  also,  for  the  further 
reason  that  the  contingency  upon  which  it  may  become  operative  is 
not  likely  to  occur,  since  I  feel  confident  that  the  reasons  which  upon 
the  whole  have  seemed  to  me  to  make  it  wiser  to  keep  together  the 
estate  I  leave  and  devote  it  all  to  the  cause  of  education  and  the  ad- 
vancement of  knowledge,  will  approve  themselves  to  the  legislature 
of  Wisconsin.  In  fact,  the  provisions  of  this  twelfth  paragraph  are 
inserted  in  this  will  only  because  the  contingency,  however  improba- 
ble, must  be  provided  against,  for  the  discharge  of  my  trustees. 
But  were  my  estate  sufficient  in  amount  to  set  on  foot  the  plan  for 
the  aid  of  the  university,  hereinbefore  provided  for,  and  also  to  build 
and  endow  the  club  house  for  mechanics  and  laborers  and  their  fam- 
ilies in  the  city  of  Madison,  I  should  wish  to  provide  for  both;  and 
if  I  be  still  given  years  and  good  fortune,  the  possibility  of  both 
lies  in  my  hope. 

Thirteenth.  I  nominate  and  appoint  as  executrix  and  executors 
of  this  my  last  will  and  testament,  my  dearly-beloved  wife,  Anna  M. 
Vilas,  my  always-faithful  brothers,  Charles  H.  Vilas  and  Edward  P. 
Vilas,  and  my  esteemed  friend,  Burr  W.  Jones.  And  I  also  appoint 
and  constitute  them  the  trustees  first  mentioned  in  this  will  to  whom 
and  to  the  survivors  and  successors  of  them  all  my  estate  is  as  afore- 
said hereby  devised  and  bequeathed  in  trust. 

And  I  desire  and  request  that  no  bond  shall  be  required  of  them, 
or  either  of  them,  in  either  the  capacity  of  executor  or  trustee.  But 
if  any  bond  shall  be  necessarily  to  be  given  by  them,  or  either  of 
them,  or  any  successor  of  either,  that  it  may  be  secured  by  some 
responsible  surety  company  and  the  premium  paid  from  the  trust 
estate,  as  an  ordinary  expense  thereof. 

[59] 


I  desire  and  direct  that  there  shall  always  be  at  least  three 
trustees,  and  that  if  at  any  time  vacancies  shall  occur  so  that 
but  two  remain,  they  shall  at  once  apply  to  the  proper  court 
for  the  appointment  of  a  third  trustee,  and  shall  nominate  such 
third  trustee  to  the  court  for  appointment,  and  therefor  possess  the 
same  persuasive  authority  which  is  recognized  as  a  testator's  priv- 
ilege. And  so  on,  until  the  complete  and  final  discharge  of  their 
trust,  whenever  but  two  trustees  shall  remain  in  office  they  shall 
nominate  and  procure  the  appointment  of  a  third;  to  the  end  that 
three  shall  be  continually  in  the  execution  of  the  trust  hereby 
created. 

And  I  desire  that  my  said  trustees  within  thirty  days  after  the 
beginning  of  each  of  their  fiscal  years  and  the  making  of  the  in- 
ventory in  the  second  paragraph  of  the  trust  aforesaid  shall  trans- 
mit to  the  regents  of  the  university  a  summary  statement  of  the 
condition  of  the  estate  as  shown  by  such  inventory. 

Fourteenth.  The  right  of  visitation  upon  the  execution  of  the 
trust  created  by  this  will,  with  the  rights  of  examination  of  accounts 
and  properties  and  of  application  to  the  court  for  any  needed  redress, 
is  given  to  my  daughter,  Mary  Esther  V.  Hanks,  to  her  husband, 
Louis  M.  Hanks,  to  the  president  of  the  University  of  Wisconsin, 
and  to  the  regents  of  the  University  of  Wisconsin. 

Fifteenth.  I  believe  I  have  in  no  particular  exceeded  the  priv- 
ileges given  by  law  in  testamentary  disposition  of  property,  or  trans- 
gressed in  any  respect  any  limitation  of  law  on  the  term  for  which 
property  may  be  held  in  trust,  or  otherwise.  But  if  in  any  particular 
the  powers  given  to  my  trustees  shall  ever  be  adjudged  by  the  su- 
preme court  of  Wisconsin  to  exceed  the  limits  authorized  by  law, 
or  if  in  any  of  the  provisions  made  by  this  will,  there  appear  to  to 
any  illegal  excess,  then  I  desire  and  direct  that  it  be  taken  as  my 
will  that  such  seeming  illegal  excess  in  powers  given  or  in  pro- 
visions made  be  alone  held  invalid  and  that  the  same  may  be  ex- 
punged herefrom  as  no  part  of  my  will,  but  that  all  which  is  given 
or  directed  within  the  limits  of  law  be  sustained  independently  as 
the  entire  purpose  and  extent  of  my  disposition  hereby. 

In  witness  whereof,  I,  William  F.  Vilas,  have  set  my  hand  and 
seal  to  this,  my  last  will  and  testament,  consisting  of  sixty-two  single 
sheets  or  leaves  of  paper  written  by  my  own  hand  on  one  side  only, 
in  presence  of  Breese  J.  Stevens,  Henry  Kessenich  and  Etta  E.  Davis, 
whom  I  have  called  as  witneses  to  its  execution,  on  this  twenty- 
seventh  day  of  August,  in  the  year  of  Our  Lord,  one  thousand,  nine 
hundred  and  two.  WM.  F.  VILAS. 

The  foregoing  instrument  consisting  (besides  fly  leaves  affixed 
next  hereafter)  of  sixty-two  single  sheets  or  leaves  of  paper,  written 
on  one  side  only  by  the  testator  himself,  was  now  here,  on  this  27th 

[60] 


day  of  August,  A.  D.  1902,  the  day  of  its  date,  signed  and  sealed  by 
the  said  testator,  William.  F.  Vilas,  in  the  presence  of  all  of  us,  and 
was  by  him  then  and  there  published  and  declared  to  be  his  Last 
Will  and  Testament.  And  we,  at  his  request,  and  in  his  presence 
and  in  the  presence  of  each  other,  have,  in  testimony  thereof,  at  the 
same  time  and  place,  signed  our  names  hereto. 

BREESE  J.  STEVENS,  Madison,  Wisconsin. 

HENRY   KESSENICH,    Madison,    Wisconsin. 

ETTA  E.  DAVIS,  Madison,  Wisconsin. 

I,  William  F.  Vilas,  of  the  city  of  Madison  in  the  state  of  Wis- 
consin, the  testator  who  made  and  executed  the  foregoing  last  will 
and  testament,  do  now  here  make,  publish  and  declare  this  codicil  to 
the  said  foregoing  will  and  testament,  in  amendment  thereof,  in 
manner  and  form  following,  that  is  to  say: 

First.  In  place  of  the  provision  for  my  daughter  made  in  the 
first  sentence  of  the  fourth  paragraph  of  said  will,  and  of  the  dis- 
cretion vested  in  my  trustees  in  the  next-to-the-last  sentence  in  said 
fourth  paragraph,  I  direct  that  from  and  after  the  decease  of  my 
wife — or  after  mine,  if  she  shall  not  survive  me — my  said  trustees 
shall  pay  over  to  our  darling  daughter,  Mary  Esther  Vilas  Hanks, 
thirty  thousand  dollars  ($30,000)  in  each  and  every  year  out  of  the 
net  annual  income  of  my  estate,  in  monthly  payments  of  two  thou- 
sand five  hundred  dollars  each,  in  advance.  If  the  net  annual  in- 
come, after  paying  all  other  charges  and  outlays  required  therefrom, 
including  the  allowance  to  Jessie  Ford  Vilas  provided  for  in  the  fifth 
paragraph,  shall  be  in  any  year  insufficient  to  pay  all  said  thirty 
thousand  dollars,  my  said  trustees  may,  in  their  discretion,  reduce 
the  payment  in  such  year  to  the  amount  of  the  net  income,  provided 
that  they  shall  in  any  case  pay  her  at  least  twenty  thousand  dollars 
($20,000)  per  year,  using  therefor  so  much  of  the  principal  of  the 
estate  as  shall  be  necessary.  And  out  of  the  income  of  the  next  suc- 
ceeding year  or  years  where  there  shall  be  excess  of  net  income, 
they  shall  pay  all  arrearages  of  said  sum  of  thirty  thousand  dollars 
per  year  remaining  unpaid  in  any  previous  year,  or  so  much  thereof 
as  such  excess  of  net  income  will  enable  them  to  pay,  until  all  such 
arrearages  in  all  preceding  years  shall  be  fully  paid.  All  said  sums 
my  daughter  shall  receive  free  of  taxes  in  any  form,  as  elsewhere  in 
my  will  provided.  And  except  as  aforesaid,  all  the  provisions  in  the 
said  fourth  paragraph  of  my  said  will  shall  remain  unaffected  hereby 
and  as  therein  written. 

Second.  In  the  twelfth  paragraph  of  my  said  will  I  have  di- 
rected a  division  of  my  estate  into  three  parts,  and  the  disposition  of 
each,  in  case  the  legislature  of  Wisconsin  shall  not,  within  the  two 
years  limited,  pass  the  act  of  acceptance  in  the  manner  provided  for. 

[61] 


That  paragraph  was  written  in  expectation  that  it  will  not  be  neces- 
sary for  my  trustees  to  proffer  to  the  legislature  the  deed  of  gift 
provided  for  until  after  the  decease  of  my  daughter,  Mary  Esther. 
But  if  such  proffer  shall  be  made  before  that  event  as  in  said  will  is 
provided  may  be  done,  and  if  the  legislature  shall  not  pass  the  act 
of  acceptance  as  therein  provided,  then  I  direct  that  such  division 
of  the  estate  and  the  disposition  to  follow  thereon,  shall  not  be  made 
until  after  the  decease  of  my  said  daughter,  Mary  Esther,  and  the 
payment  of  all  legacies  made  to  her  children  and  due  provision  to 
secure  to  my  daughter-in-law,  Jessie  F.  Vilas,  the  payment  of  the 
legacy  bequeathed  to  her,  in  case  she  shall  survive  my  daughter,  and 
remain  unmarried,  for  which  purpose  my  said  trustees  may  purchase 
an  annuity  or  may  charge  the  same  upon  the  estate;  so  that  said 
division  and  consequent  disposition  shall  be  made  only  of  the  net 
remainder  of  the  estate  then  in  their  hands.  And  I  also  direct  that 
in  the  contingency  aforesaid — of  the  legislature's  refusing  to  accept 
such  proffered  deed  of  gift  by  not  passing  the  proper  act  of  accept- 
ance within  the  two  years  limited,  my  said  trustees  shall,  from  the 
time  of  the  proffer  thereof,  pay  annually  to  my  daughter,  Mary 
Esther,  the  entire  net  income  of  any  said  estate  during  the  remainder 
of  her  life,  and  that  if  the  same  shall  not  amount  to  thirty  thousand 
dollars  per  year  they  shall  pay  her  that  sum  annually,  taking  so 
much  as  necessary  from  the  principal  of  the  estate,  and  leaving  for 
division  only  what  may  thus  remain.  And  they  shall  also  pay  all 
taxes  thereon  as  elsewhere  provided  in  my  will. 

Third.  In  case  I  shall  survive  my  wife,  then  all  the  articles  of 
personal  property  given  directly  to  her  in  the  first  part  of  my  said 
will,  I  give  and  bequeath  to  my  daughter,  Mary  Esther,  to  the  same 
extent  and  in  like  manner. 

In  witness  whereof,  I,  William  F.  Vilas,  have  set  my  hand  and 
seal  to  this  codicil  to  my  said  last  will  and  testament  consisting  of 
four  leaves  or  sheets  of  paper,  additional  including  this  on  which 
this  is  written,  and  written  by  my  own  hand  on  one  side  only,  in  the 
presence  of  Breese  J.  Stevens,  Henry  Kessenich  and  Etta  E.  Davis, 
whom  I  have  called  as  witnesses  to  its  execution,  on  this  second  day 
of  June,  in  the  year  of  Our  Lord,  One  Thousand,  Nine  Hundred  and 
Three.  WM.  F.  VILAS. 

The  foregoing  instrument  consisting  of  four  leaves  or  sheets  of 
paper  additional  to  the  foregoing  will,  written  on  one  side  only  by 
the  testator  himself,  was  now  here,  on  this  2nd  day  of  June,  A.  D. 
1903,  the  day  of  its  date,  signed  and  sealed  by  the  said  testator 
William  F.  Vilas  in  the  presence  of  all  of  us,  and  was  by  him  then 
and  there  published  and  declared  to  be  a  codicil  to  his  Last  Will  and 
Testament  thereto  attached  and  next  preceding.  And  we,  at  his 

[62] 


request  and  in  his  presence  and  in  the  presence  of  each  other,  have, 
in  testimony  thereof  at  the  same  time  and  place  signed  our  names 
hereto. 

BREESE  J.   STEVENS,  Madison,  Wisconsin. 

HENRY    KESSENICH,    Madison,    Wisconsin. 

ETTA  E.  DAVIS,  Madison,  Wisconsin. 


[63] 


